Promise
by David Shigure
Summary: When Naruto Uzumaki reads the first volume of Love Hina, he wonders how much different life would be if he wasn't a ninja. Just of out curiosity. The Kyuubi hears his unwitting call and casts a genjutsu that thrusts Naruto into the world of Love Hina!
1. Comatose Depths

This is my first crossover story, so I'm gonna try and hard and make this work. Please enjoy and R&R at the end, Thank you! :)

* * *

'Promise'

Chapter 1: Comatose Depths

It was a bright and beautiful day in Konoha. The sun beat down on the bustled streets of the village centre, where crowds of people mingled together, dealing with their every day lives. Two Genin ninja walked through the crowds, their eyes scanning the people around them. "Where the hell is he?" Sasuke Uchiha growled. One of his eyes were crimson, with three black tomoe sitting where the iris should have been. A sign that his family's blood trait, the Sharingan, was activated. But even with the Sharingan, he still couldn't find the person he was looking for. "You know, there's one last place we could try." Walking next to him, Sakura Haruno pointed in the direction she was talking about.  
Sasuke smiled. "Ichiraku's". Sakura nodded. "Exactly. The one place where he likes to pig out in the whole of Konoha." The two ninja walked off in the direction of the ramen restaurant.

"Well done. You were right Sakura." The two ninja were close enough to the restaurant to see the occupants inside. Including the one they were after, with his unique, bright yellow hair and trademark orange jumpsuit. Naruto Uzumaki was sitting on a stool, eating his fifth bowl of ramen and reading something that looked like one of those porn manga's Kakashi read. "And what are we up to, loser?" Sasuke smirked. He tried to look to see if it really was one of Kakashi's books, but Naruto jumped out of his stool, a red blush erupting over his face. "What the hell? Why are you creeping up on me like that?" Naruto yelled, trying to hide the book behind him. "It's not one of Kakashi's, Sasuke." Sakura had used Sasuke's opening line as an opportunity to sneak around Naruto, peeking at the cover of the book. "Hey!" Naruto turned around, making sure he was facing the two of them. "Come on Naruto. Show me what it is." Sakura tried to put on the sweetest voice she could muster. Naruto gulped. "Listen, Hinata said it was good, so she lent it to me..."  
"Wait, so it belongs to Hinata?" She didn't expect the book to belong to Hinata. If that was the case, maybe it wasn't so bad. Even she liked some of the manga's that Hinata seemed to spend her life reading.  
"So what?" Naruto was eyeing her suspiciously. "Its surprisingly good, and maybe even you..." Sakura cut in. "Hinata has got a pretty good taste, so I'm not worried. But please just let me see which one it is, its not gonna kill you!" Naruto thought about it for a second. He slowly brought the book around from behind his back and handed it to Sakura.  
"About time." Sasuke took a seat on one of the stools. "A bowl of ramen please." The restaurant owner nodded. "Coming right up."

"So what is it, Sakura?" Sasuke turned to face the pink-haired kunoichi, who was still staring at the cover. "Sakura?" He prodded the girl on the shoulder. "Earth to bubblegum head?"  
Sakura shook her head. She turned the cover around to show him. "Love Hina by Ken Akamatsu." He read out loud. "Wait, I've heard about that. Wasn't there a TV show, an anime thing about Love Hina? That one the girls seem to love?"  
Sakura nodded. "I've got the DVD box set of it back home. As does Ino, Tenten, and Hinata. Its one of those romantic comedy type stories." Sasuke's bowl of ramen was placed in front of him. He picked up his chopsticks. "So Naruto. You into chick flicks now?"

Naruto's head was buried in his arms on the table. "Its not what it looks like. I promised Hinata I'd read it, which seemed to make her happy." Ignoring Sakura's squeals of how cute that was, Sasuke swallowed the ramen in his mouth. "But just a minute ago, you said to Sakura that it wasn't that bad." Naruto lifted his head up from the table. "Well, its not like some of them, where its all soppy and clichéd stuff. This one isn't that bad."  
"Whatever you say, loser." Sasuke held out his hand to Sakura. "Let's see if there's any truth to that." Sakura handed it over, how mouth slightly open in surprise. "What? Its not like I've never read a manga before." He opened the first page and started to read. "But you read the Shonen stuff, like Bleach. The boy kind of stuff. Not Love Hina." Sakura thought wildly in her mind.  
But even so, Sasuke sat there, going through another five bowls of ramen while Sakura and Naruto chatted about the story. "It seems like he's getting into it." Sakura whispered to Naruto. He nodded in agreement and watched as Sasuke turned over another page. "What have we done to our little avenger boy?" Naruto shook his head.

"And what are we up to?" Out of nowhere, their sensei, Kakashi walked into Ichiraku's restaurant, sitting down next to Sasuke. "Ooh, and what's Sasuke reading?" He said, eyeing the book that was now hidden behind Sasuke's back. "Nothing!" Sasuke sounded a little bit embarrassed. "Sasuke, I've been your sensei for a while now. You should know by now that I'm a lot quicker than you. For example." In the blink of an eye, Kakashi had grabbed the book from behind Sasuke, who gaped at his now empty hands. "Love Hina, huh?" Kakashi nodded as he looked over the front cover. "A good book." He nodded as turned it over, reading the back. "Its been a while since I read this. Who'd have thought, Sasuke Uchiha reading Love Hina? Wait until I tell the other Jonins." He chuckled merrily, handing the book to a now enraged Sasuke. "Listen, I only read it because Naruto said it wasn't that bad." Sasuke crossed his arms. "Ah, so this belongs to Naruto?" Kakashi eyed the yellow-haired ninja, who was scratching the back of his head, an embarrassed grin on his face. "Actually sensei, it belongs to Hinata. She said I should read it and that I might like it. Its not that bad actually."

"The girl's got good taste." Kakashi nodded at a cook, who smiled at him. "That'll be one spicy chicken ramen, right Kakashi?" Kakashi nodded, his eyes betraying a look of pleasure. "Hey sensei, if you've read the manga, have you seen the anime?" Sakura asked tentatively. Kakashi nodded. "A few episodes, yeah. Some of us Jonins get together sometimes, and one night the girls thought it be funny to make us all watch Love Hina. And it wasn't too bad, actually. However, reading the manga's easier because I can fit it in with my hectic agenda." He picked up his chopsticks in anticipation of his meal.

"So I guess even the Jonins like this kind of stuff too." Sakura thought. "I wonder if the Hokage's seen Love Hina?"

…

Naruto was in bed, reading the last few pages of Love Hina that Hinata had lent him. "You know, this stuff isn't bad at all. And Naru Narusegawa really reminds me of Sakura. And I guess me and Keitaro have a few things in common too, like bad school grades and stuff." He closed the last page of the book. "That was great. I wonder if Hinata would lend me anymore of them?" He put the book on his bedside cabinet, turning of the light. He laid back on his pillows and stared at his ceiling. A yawn escaped from him as he tried to imagine what it would be like to have that kind of a life. Like the one Keitaro had, instead of being a ninja.  
"Like that'll ever happen." He yawned again, closing his eyes. A few moments later he was sound asleep.

Underneath the seal on his belly, the Kyuubi chuckled. "So young Naruto. Do you really want to find out what its like?" The Kyuubi growled as it began to build up chakra. "This way, I can show Naruto my other form." One of its golden eyes opened. "Maybe Naruto will even accept me..." The chakra continued to build, slowly reaching its peak. "Let me show you the worlds you want to explore, and then maybe... I can show you my true nature, Naruto Uzumaki." The Kyuubi injected the chakra into the young ninja's chakra system. The boy began to glow with a bright blue aura. Naruto fell even deeper into sleep, deep enough to be comatose. "Lets go, Naruto." The Kyuubi closed its eyes, falling within its own genjutsu sleep.

Naruto suddenly woke up, aware that his surroundings were not what they were supposed to be. He seemed to be lying within a white fog. "Where... am I?" He looked around, still lying flat on his back. He sat up, feeling the ground. It felt wooden. "Definitely not in my room anymore." He stood up, still scanning around him. "What's that smell?" He sniffed the air around him. "Minerals?" He walked forwards, trying to work his way out of the fog. After a few steps, the fog began to clear up. He could see what looked like a small town. And he could see people walking around. "Maybe I could ask one of them where I am." He began to walk over to the small town.  
Suddenly, he saw bright pink hair amongst the people walking around. "Sakura?" He began running to the familiar face, but stopped when he saw her walking with a group of girls. And she was wearing an odd kind of school uniform, instead of her usual ninja outfit. "Sakura?" He murmured softly.  
He decided to tail her, just to see if anything else had changed about her. Thanks to his ninja skills, he remained undetected as Sakura said good bye to a few of the school girls around her who Naruto had never seen before. "What the hell is going on?" He wondered as she said goodbye to the last girl and began walking up a steep slope with stone steps, like an old temple. There were trees lining the side of the steps. Naruto chose to use the trees so that he could spy on Sakura without being seen.

It was quiet moving up the hill. Sakura hummed quietly to herself as Naruto jumped from branch to branch, tailing her like a shadow. After a few moments, they reached the top of the hill, where a huge apartment complex was sitting. A big sign above the front door read 'Welcome to The Hinata Apartments'.  
"The Hinata Apartments?" Naruto thought. "It seems familiar... although it could just be I'm thinking of Hinata." Sakura had walked through the front double doors. "Crap. She's gone inside." He sat down on the branch he was on, thinking up his next move. "I can always sneak in. I'm sure nobody's gonna spot me." He looked around the apartments, scanning for potential entryways. "Let's try the roof, and work down, floor by floor." He stood up, jumped down from the branch he was on, and raced towards the building, jumping on ledges and climbing the walls until he got to the top.  
"That wasn't so hard." He puffed. He took the steps going down into the top floor of the building. Scanning the hallway, all he could see were sliding doors. He walked past the first one, but stopped when he noticed there was a name on it. "Kaolla Su's room." He read out loud. He didn't recognise the name from anyone he knew. Moving down the hall, he passed another door, with "Motoko Aoyama's Room" written on it. Getting confused, he walked to the next door. This time, the name written on it was actually somebody he knew. But it wasn't who he was expecting. "Hinata Hyuuga's Room." He read off the plaque on the door. "Hinata's here too?" He shook his head, extremely confused. "What's going on here?" He internally whined. Moving off onto the next and last door on this floor, he read the sign balefully. "Naru Narusegawa's Room."

"Naru Narusegawa?" Naruto eyed the sign, recognition flaring into his eyes. "Isn't that...?" He was cut off from his train of thought by a noise. Somebody was coming up the stairs. "Crap, gotta hide!" Naruto looked around, but he couldn't see any good hiding places. "Nothing for it." He said as he opened Naru's door and quickly moved inside, closing the door behind him. Luckily for him, nobody was inside. The room was nice and wide, with a separate sliding door which he assumed was where Naru slept. But what caught his eye was the hole in the middle of the floor. "What's this?" He walked over to the hole, peeking inside.  
It was another room, which looked almost identical to Naru's room, save for different personal belongings. And it looked as though nobody was in that room either at the moment.

"Keitaro!" A voice yelled right outside of the room he was in. It was a girl's voice, albeit it sounded like a really pissed off girl's voice. "Have you been in my room again?" The voice echoed through the room as Naruto panicked. "Keitaro!" He heard a hand on the handle of the door. "Crap!" Naruto jumped through the hole in the floor, landed as quiet as a mouse. "I'm gonna get caught if I don't keep moving." He heard the door sliding open. " I swear to god Keitaro, if I catch you in here, I'm gonna rip you limb from painfully bloody limb." Naruto heard a gasp as the occupant of the room looked around. "There's no one in here." The girl upstairs was talking to herself. Naruto heard the girl move over to the hole in the floor. He ran to what looked like a sliding door closet and locked himself inside.

"Doesn't look like he's down there either." The girl sounded as though she had stuck her head through the hole to look around. "But I could've sworn I heard footsteps in here." With a small thump, it sounded as though the girl had jumped through the hole. "Crap, Crap, Crap!!" Naruto's gut had begun flying loops at a hundred miles an hour. Beads of sweat rolled down his face as he heard the girl searching around the room. He listened as the sound of her footsteps stopped outside the closet he was in. "Well maybe it wasn't him..." The girl sighed.

Another voice echoed throughout the apartments. "Naru! Were you calling me? Shinobu said she could hear you all the way from her room." A male voice sounded like it was coming from outside Naru's door. "Naru, are you in here?" The sound of the sliding door reached Naruto's ears as the guy opened the door and looked inside. "Where are you?" The boy began walking around in Naru's room.  
"Crap, he's in my room." The girl standing outside the closet Naruto was hiding in murmured to herself. "I can't let him see me in his room." The girl began pacing around. "I know! I'll hide in his closet!" The girl put her hand on the handle. "She's gonna come in! I better squeeze over to the other side of this closet." Naruto tried crouching down and shuffling along. A moment later, the close door opened and the girl squeezed inside. Luckily, she didn't notice Naruto crouching at the bottom. "This must be Naru." He thought. He couldn't see too well in the dark, but he could just about make out her figure. Slim, average height with a decently sized bosom. And from the looks of it, she had long hair. "She looks nice." He thought. Another thump could be heard from outside the close door. The guy, who Naruto thought must be Keitaro, must have jumped through the hole. "Well, she's not up there." Keitaro sighed. "I wonder where she went to?"

Naruto felt Naru shuffle alongside him. He felt a strand of her long hair brush past his fingers. He held his breath, trying not to give himself away. "If only Sasuke could see this." He thought wildly, his mind in a mess. "ugh... if he doesn't move, I'm gonna be in here all night..." Naru whispered to herself. It was weird, listening to a girl talk to herself when he was sitting practically right next to her, without her knowing. He smiled grimly, he had just thought of an idea. It would get him out of this mess quicker, and would be hilarious to watch.

He clenched and unclenched his fist, moving it into position. As quickly as he could, he pinched Naru's bum, making her scream and jump out of the closet, completely destroying the doors of the closet. He almost felt like wetting himself then and there. But he had to move before he got caught. In the blink of an eye, he raced out of the room and opened the sliding door of Keitaro's room.

"PERVERT!!" Naru screamed, rubbing her bum with one hand and punching every bit of Keitaro she could reach with the other. "N-Naru... I didn't..." Keitaro tried to explain through the punches. Naru opened her eyes long enough to see a flash of orange run out of the door to Keitaro's room. "Who was that?" She pointed to the now open door. "I dunno." Keitaro looked extremely confused. "And why were you hiding in my closet?"  
Naru stood up, picking Keitaro off the floor. "Now's not the time to worry about that. We have a pervert on the loose! We have to alert the Hinata Apartments!" Keitaro still looked dazed. "A pervert? I feel sorry for whoever it is. I can still remember the time I was getting beaten up for supposedly perving over the girls here."  
"Well, you had that coming. You saw me naked! How could I have let you go after that?" Naru growled as they both ran towards the common area of the apartments. "Oh yeah, I should've known not to mess with Naru Narusegawa, the queen of Ice of the Hinata apartments, who's blind enough not to be able to tell a guy from a girl while taking a bath in a hot spring." Keitaro said sarcastically. "Shut up, Keitaro." Naru said as she pressed the alarm button of the apartments.

* * *

I hope you enjoyed it. :)  
Please review!


	2. Scorching Moon

'Promise'

Chapter 2: Scorching Moon

"I sure picked the wrong day to sneak into an all girls, hot spring dormitory." Naruto thought as he dodged a random, incoming missile. "This one's fast!" Mitsune Konno, a.k.a 'Kitsune', was running after the manic orange blur. "Keep shooting at him Su!"  
The girl holding the rocket launcher firing missiles at Naruto was busy reloading her weapon. "I can't" Kaolla Su wailed. "The missile launcher is empty!" Naruto grinned at the two girls behind him. "Sorry ladies, but you're gonna have to do a lot better than that to catch this ninja!" He ducked as Kitsune responded by throwing her shoe at him.

"Slow down, you manic child!" Kitsune was panting heavily, leaning against the corridor wall. "No way! I don't really fancy getting caught and fed to that evil looking girl." He indicated Naru, who was racing down the corridor, a fire raging in her eyes. Keitaro was slowly walking behind her, sighing heavily. "I've gotta warn you kid, she's perfectly capable of eating you whole when she's in her murderous rage."  
Naruto grinned. "Well, I'm not sticking around to let that happen. Later." He sped down the hallway, his eyes desperately scanning for any sign of Sakura. He hadn't seen a room with her name on it yet, although he hadn't checked the first floor yet. "Where the hell are you, Sakura?" He slowed down his pace as he reached the bottom step. Moving down the hallway with more sliding doors, he read the name of the first occupant. 'Shinobu Maehara's room.' Shaking his head exasperatedly, he moved onto the next door. 'Sakura Haruno's room.' He read. He had found Sakura's room, at last.

He put his hand on the door. Sliding it open slowly, he peeked inside. As more and more of the room came into view, his heart sank. He couldn't see Sakura in the room. Moving into the room as quietly as he could, he began to look around. Sakura's room was relatively tidy, with a small desk in the corner, supporting a large number of books. There was a heated desk sitting right in the middle of the room, with an empty mug and plate lying on top of it. "She must've had a quick bite to eat." He thought. He noticed Sakura's school uniform she had been wearing earlier hanging up in a closet she had neglected to shut properly. "She might be having a shower or something..." He turned round to leave the room again when something caught his attention. Lying on the desk, a small lined book was lying open. It looked like a diary of some sort. Walking over to the desk, he picked up the book. "Definitely a diary." He said with a grin, reading the words 'Sakura's Diary' on the cover. "Now lets see what you've been up to..." Naruto sat down crossed legged on the floor and turned the first page.

1st August

Today was a really strange day. I woke up this morning, with a strange image of this blonde-haired boy in my mind.  
I don't know why, but he was just on my mind. I'm pretty sure I've never seen this guy before. He looks like he's  
my age too...  
Anyway, school was normal right up until the point where Sasuke Uchiha comes out of absolutely nowhere and starts  
talking to me. Okay, so he's cute, and has this strange mysterious side to him. But other than that, I don't really see  
what all the fuss over him is about. Ino goes on about him like as though he was a god or something.

But the strangest thing was, he was asking me if I had seen a boy called Naruto Uzumaki. I'm pretty sure I don't know  
anyone called that, but by the way Sasuke was describing him, it sounds exactly like the guy I saw in my dream...

Orange clothes, bright blonde hair, bright blue eyes and whisker marks across his cheeks. It was the exact same, I'm sure  
of it.

I don't know... Should I tell Sasuke about the dream I had? He'll think I'm insane...  
No, I'm going to wait and see if anything else happens first. Then I'll decide.

Naruto closed the diary. "So she's forgotten about me?" He murmured. He stood up, placing the diary back where he had found it. He was just about to leave the room when the door slid open. "Crap." Naruto thought as he watched Sakura walk into the room, her eyes closed. Her hair was wet and all she was wearing was a towel wrapped around her body from the top of her breasts down. She turned around and opened her eyes, staring at the yellow-headed ninja who was grinning at her with a hand behind his head. "Hi Sakura." He said sheepishly.

Sakura kept staring at him, as though he was the most fascinating thing in the world. "You're that guy... from my dream..." She whispered. "um..." He didn't know what to say. He had trouble trying not to stare at her, his face was beginning to glow bright red. "But how...?" She walked over to him, her face getting close enough so that she could stare intently into his eyes. "How did you know my name?"

"uh..." He suddenly thought saying that she was one of his best friend from back home wouldn't be a good idea if she couldn't remember him in the first place. "I've heard about you... from Sasuke!" He mentally congratulated himself for saying something that she could relate to. "Sasuke?" A look of surprise came over her expression.  
"Sakura!" A shout came from the hallway. It sounded like Naru. "We've got a pervert on the loose!"

"I guess I've gotta run." Naruto winked at her as he began to run to the door. "Ooh, and no matter what she says, I'm not a pervert." He nodded at Sakura once before opening the door and running like hell. "Wait!" Sakura ran to the door, looking after him and trying to hold onto her towel at the same time. Naru soon came into her field of vision, holding a very disgruntled Keitaro. "Where did he go?" Naru growled. Sakura pointed in the direction Naruto had run off to. "Let's go Keitaro!" She ran off, dragging Keitaro behind her, who quickly mouthed to her, "Help me!" Before he was dragged out of sight again.

"I know that guy from somewhere else..." Sakura thought slowly. Vague flashbacks of Naruto kept flashing in her mind. "Who are you?"

He was back on the run again, and he had only a few minutes to chat with Sakura. "Damn it." Naruto cursed. "I need to get away from this girl!" Naru was steadily catching up to him as he found himself steadily lost within the apartments. "Where the hell am I?" He fumed as he suddenly found himself in the kitchen. There was another girl in it, with mid-length blue hair and cerulean blue eyes. Her hair had been allowed to fall, except for where it was tied at the end, in a dolphin's tail. He actually had to stop for a moment to stare at the gorgeous girl in front of him.

She was busily cutting up leeks, so he assumed she was making lunch for the other occupants of the buildings. He could hear the girl murmuring to herself. "So there's a pervert on the loose within the apartments?" The girl had a really quiet voice. "She might be a really timid girl." Naruto thought. "It's probably not a good idea not to spook her." As he turned to tiptoe out of the kitchen, he could hear the shouting voices of Naru and the other girls coming his way.  
He was still lost within the big building. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to ask?

"Excuse me." Naruto said politely. "Which way is it to the roof?" As he expected the girl turned to the door and pointed to the stairs. "Its up the two flights of stairs Keitaro! You've been the apartment manager long enough, you should know that you've gotta take the first flight of stairs, turn left, walk past Naru's room and then up the other flight of stairs. Then just up the narrow staircase to the washing line. And don't knock off any laundry, its still drying." The blue-haired girl had somehow managed to not look at him throughout the whole conversation.

"Thank you very much." Naruto bowed politely. "I'll make sure not to knock off any laundry." The girl turn to face him, gasping in surprise. "You're not Keitaro!" The girl squeaked in fright. "No, sorry." Naruto smiled. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I think I'm lost. What is your name?"

"Shinobu Maehara." The girl seemed dazed, as though she couldn't believe what was happening. "Shinobu? That's a nice name." Naruto turned to the door again. "Well, I'll be seeing you around, Shinobu." He turned and fled just as Naru, Keitaro, Kitsune and Su barreled through the other door to the kitchen. "Shinobu! Have you seen the pervert!" Naru asked frantically. Shinobu nodded slowly. "He just... he..." She was still recovering from Naruto's sudden appearance. He didn't seem that bad to her. "Come on Shinobu! Pull yourself together, you're fifteen now!" Naru said angrily. "You should've punched him like Motoko showed you." Su giggled, waving her arms around, inadvertently punching Keitaro.

"He went... that way..." Shinobu pointed out of the door Naruto exited. "He said he was going to the roof." The other girls and Keitaro rushed out of the door Shinobu pointed out of. "Thanks, Shinobu!" Su squealed as she ran after the others.

She turned back to her leeks, her hands shaking as she picked up the knife she was using to cut them. "What's with the noise today?" Another girl walked into the kitchen. She also had blue hair, just like Shinobu's hair, except a little bit longer, with pale eyes. "I don't know Hinata..." Shinobu murmured shakily. "I just had an encounter with the 'pervert'." Hinata let out a gasp. "Did he hurt you? What did he do? What did he look like?" She put an arm around Shinobu's shoulder. "Come on, you can tell me." Hinata smiled encouragingly.

"He didn't hurt me." Shinobu said softly. "He seemed like a really nice guy, actually." She looked at the door he had walked out of. "He just asked me where the roof was. And there was me thinking he was actually Keitaro, so I told him. Then he asked me my name, said it was nice, and ran off." Shinobu looked up at Hinata. "You don't think he's not actually a pervert? This happened before, with Keitaro..." Shinobu mumbled as the memory of the girls all chasing Keitaro around the house flew back. "I don't know..." Hinata murmured. "Maybe you're right..." Hinata looked thoughtful for a moment. "What did he look like?" She asked.

"Well, he had bright blond hair, and he was wearing a blue headband, with a metallic plate on it with a funny symbol on it..." Shinobu said, trying to remember. "He had these bright blue eyes, and he had strange, whisker-like scars across his cheeks. And he was wearing black and orange clothes, like it was all orange from the waist down, and black and orange on the top." Shinobu giggled. "And his name was Naruto... Naruto Uzumaki."

"Naruto Uzumaki..." Hinata thought hard for a moment. The name seemed familiar to her, but she couldn't quite place it. Maybe it was somebody she knew from school.  
After a moment, she spoke up. "Lets go look for him with the others."

"What? Why?" Shinobu sounded surprised. Hinata grimaced. "We might be able to save him from a terrible fate." She grabbed Shinobu's arm. "Come on! Before Naru turns him into tonight's dinner!" The two girls ran as fast as they could to the roof.

Naruto sighed. He had finally run out of places to run to. He was stuck on the roof, standing on the tip where the roof begins to slant. The girls had all caught up with him, even Keitaro had managed to survive being dragged around by Naru. They were standing by the washing line. At the moment, Keitaro was pleading with the girls to try and calm them down. "Come on ladies!" He laughed nervously. "There's probably a very good explanation for this. Let's give him a chance to explain, at least."  
But the girls were not having any of it. "He pinched my ass Keitaro!" Naru fumed. "There's no way I'm letting him go without skinning him alive!"

"But apart from that, did he do anything else?" Keitaro seemed to be practically begging the girls. Naruto was slightly touched. Not many people had stood up for him like this. At least, not back home. "Technically, he saw me when I came back from the hot spring, in nothing but a towel. Does that count?" Sakura said innocently. "You weren't complaining back then!" Naruto said from the roof. He literally had to shout. "True, I didn't mind that much. But you were still in my room." Sakura winked at him. She actually seemed to be enjoying this. Naruto growled. "She's definitely changed." He thought. "Back home, she would've slaughtered me like Naru seems like she's about to do."

At this point, Hinata and Shinobu came running up the narrow staircase to the roof. Naruto gasped when he saw Hinata. She seemed exactly the same as he remembered when he was back in Konoha. Same clothes and everything.  
But there was no recognition in her eyes. Only a faint sense in familiarity. "Wait!" Shinobu yelled. "Keitaro's right! Let's give him a chance to explain first." Hinata pleaded. Their pleas were having an effect on the other girls. "We can at least ask him who he is! Lets go downstairs and talk about this." Shinobu begged, looking at Keitaro with pleading eyes. He smiled nervously. "Naru, what do you think? Can you hear him out?"

Naru pouted. "Fine. We'll have a chat first." She glared angrily at Naruto on the roof, who was grinning cheekily. "But I'm still gonna kill you afterwards though."  
Naruto nodded. "Fine. Just don't expect me to sit still." He jumped off the roof and landed next to them. Even though it was a simple jump to him, the girls seemed to be impressed. "What are you, some kind of ninja?" Naru muttered under her breath.

It was getting late. The sun was beginning to set, casting a fiery red glow over the Hinata Apartments. It looked beautiful.

A girl was slowly making her way up the long steps leading to the apartments. She had fiery red hair, as red as the glow of the dying sun, as well as her eyes, which were also crimson red. Along her cheeks were three whisker-like scars. Only faint scars though. And there were three on each side, making her seem like a fox.  
She had a slim body, almost athletic, with a moderately sized bosom to finish. Long eyelashes complimented her cute face, as she blinked up at the sight of the looming Hinata apartments.

"I'm almost there, my Naruto." The girl smiled, her eyes sparkling in the sun's light. "Just hold on for a little bit longer. Then we'll be together forever." She looked at the old abandoned annex as she walked up the side of the mountain she was climbing. The destroyed clock face was still there, reflecting red from the sun. The dial was pointed at seven o'clock.  
She smiled at the annex as she kept on walking. "That will come in useful, later on." Her smile had turned sly, with a dangerous look in her eyes.

She reached the front of the apartments, looking up at the huge building. "So this is the Hinata Apartments, huh?" She whistled as she looked over it. "Could it get any bigger?"  
She walked up to the front door. "This is it." She murmured, raising a hand. "You'll be able to see me for who I really am, Naruto." She knocked three times on the glass pane of the front door.

* * *

I enjoyed this chapter. Very fun to write, this story is.  
Please R&R  
I love reviews! ^^  
Oh, and if you haven't figured it out by now, the story line is two years ahead for everyone, so in the Love Hina-verse, its two years since Keitaro and Naru finally got into Tokyo U, making Shinobu and Su 15 now.  
And in the Naruto-verse, think Shippuden, and that goes for clothing style as well as ages too.


	3. The Last Hope

'Promise'

Chapter 3: The Last Hope

It was getting late. The sun had already begun to set, casting a fiery glow across the Hinata Apartments.

Naruto found himself sitting in the main lounge of the Hinata, with the front door only metres away from him if things became hectic. He ran his hand through his blond hair nervously, trying not to look at all _seven _of the girls currently staring at him. "Now's the time to explain, brat." Naru glared at him. "What are you doing here? This is an all-girls dorm and except for the apartment manager, no guy is supposed to come here!"

"You don't say anything when Kentaro comes around, Naru." Keitaro sipped on a cup of herbal tea, trying to soothe his nerves. It had been one long day. "Well we couldn't get Kentaro to leave, even if we wanted to." Naru pouted. "But there is a limit to how many boys I can put up with here!"  
"That's true but..." Keitaro looked at Naruto, who looked uncomfortable. "I don't think he came here to cause trouble."

"Well then, what did he come for?" Kitsune had been staring at the poor boy for a while now. He seemed pretty interesting to her. And her intuition hadn't failed her that many times in the past...  
Naruto shuffled on his chair uncomfortably. Truth be told, he had no idea what to say. Originally, he'd been thrown into this situation without any idea how he got here. He knew for a fact that this was certainly not Konoha.  
The only reason he had stayed behind was because of Sakura, and Hinata. They belonged in his world, not this one. And until he found out why they were here, and why they didn't remember him, he wasn't leaving.  
But in order to stay he was going to have to come up with an ingenious back story, something that would hold up to scrutiny and wouldn't cause him trouble for the future...

"I have amnesia." He grinned sheepishly. _If all else fails, feign ignorance and pretend like you can't remember anything..._

"Amnesia?" Sakura said slowly. "But how is that possible?"

"I don't believe him." Naru glared daggers at him.

"It sounds a bit fishy to me." Kitsune muttered.

"It's true, I swear!" Naruto shook his head. "I can't remember much. I don't know where I came from, or even how old I am. I can remember my name, but I can't remember who my mother, or my father was..."  
"_At least that bit wasn't made up." _He thought gloomily.

He continued. "The only thing I seem to remember other then my own name, is them." He pointed at Sakura and Hinata. The two girls looked at each other in surprise. "I can remember who they are. That's the reason why I'm here. I saw Sakura in the street earlier on, and seeing as she's one of the only things I can remember, I thought I'd follow her, to see if she could give me any more clues about who I am."  
Naruto hung his head. "Although once I got here, I realised that they couldn't remember me at all. So now I don't know what to do."

All the girls looked at each other, and then all eyes turned to Naru and Keitaro. "Well, the decision is yours as for what we do with him." Motoko said, nodding towards Keitaro. "You are the apartment manager after all." Keitaro nodded slowly. "You're right. As the apartment manager, I do have that decision to make." He looked up at all the girls. "I can't make _any _decision until I know what you think of him. Personally, I would like to keep him here until he can figure out what to do from now. We can give him a job with Haruka, and we'll get another barrel bath like mine."  
Surprisingly, most of the girls nodded at this, noticeably the younger ones like Shinobu, Su, Sakura and Hinata. "I think he seems like a nice guy." Shinobu said timidly. "I agree with you Keitaro, he should stay for the moment."

Keitaro nodded at her. "Thank you Shinobu." He looked at the others. "We'll have a majority vote. If Naruto gets more than half, he can stay at the Hinata Apartments. All who want Naruto to stay, please raise your hands."  
The youngest ones put their hands up first, followed after some thought by Motoko. "I'm interested in your fighting skills, Naruto. After this is over, I would like to see what you can do." She cast a stern look his way. He laughed nervously. "That's fine by me, I'll be happy to show you."  
Kitsune also slowly raised her hand into the air. "There's something about you kid that's got me interested. And seeing as its probably not going to be a permanent thing anyway, why not?"

Naruto nodded gratefully. He turned to face Naru who seemed like she was in a bad mood. "ugh..." She groaned. "I guess if the others can agree with it, I guess I can bear with it." She slowly raised her hand in the air too. "But I'm warning you. Anything else fishy that happens around you and I'm gonna make sure you regret it!" She glared daggers at him whilst subconsciously rubbing her bum. Naruto smiled at her. "Thank you very much, Naru."  
Keitaro looked around, and smiled at the girls. "Alright then, its decided. Naruto gets to stay due to an unanimous vote. Welcome to the Hinata Apartments, Naruto Uzumaki!"

There was a soft round of applause for him. "Congratulations, Naruto!" Shinobu smiled, making him blush. "Thanks guys, this means a lot to me." He grinned idiotically. He'd never quite experienced anything like this before. People had never clapped for him, much less welcomed him into a group like this, save for Squad Seven back home.

There was a knock on the door. Everybody turned to face the front of the room, where they could see the front door. There was a silhouetted figure standing there, her appearance hidden due to the glare from the dying sun. "Who could that be?" Kitsune asked. "I don't know, lets go see." Keitaro stood up and walked over to the door, sliding it open.

Standing in the door, was one of the most beautiful girls Naruto had ever seen. She had fiery red hair, in two long pigtails, kind of like how his sexy jutsu form looked. This girl also shared the three whisker-like scars on his face, just underneath her crimson red eyes. She bowed politely in the doorway, looking up at Keitaro. "Good evening. Are you the guy in charge of this place?"  
Keitaro nodded slowly, dumbfounded. This girl's beauty was mesmerizing, he couldn't pull his eyes away long enough to form a sensible greeting. Eventually, he pulled himself out of his chance and bowed too. "Yes, I am the apartment manager for the Hinata Apartments. How can I help?"

The girl stood up, smiling. "Good. I'm looking for somebody. He's got spiky blond hair, bright blue eyes and wears a blue headband with a metallic plate on it. And he's about this tall." She made a gesture with her hand, holding it up so it was as tall as she was.  
Everybody in the room behind Keitaro simultaneously gasped. All eyes turned to Naruto, who looked utterly baffled. "I don't..." He began to protest that he'd never seen this girl in his life before.

The girl looked past Keitaro, noticing that the boy she had just described was sitting there, trying to explain himself to the other girls. She walked past the confused apartment manager, and headed towards the group. "Is that you...Naruto?" She murmured.

Naruto flinched. How the heck did she know his name? He turned to face the girl. "um...yes, I'm Naruto." He said. "Nice to meet you." He held out his hand, intending to shake the girls hand. He didn't expect the girl to completely ignore the hand and jump on top of him, arms wrapped around his neck. "I finally found you!" The girl was beside herself, nuzzling into his neck. Naruto quickly went bright red from the feminine contact.

"Naruto! I've been looking for you for such a long time!"

He didn't know what to do. He had never met this girl in his life before, and here she was, hanging off his neck. But something about her seemed familiar. "You've been... looking for me?" He asked. The girl pulled herself away from his chest and looked up into his eyes. Her crimson ones looked beautiful. She nodded. "I've been looking for you, Naruto Uzumaki. We've been together for so long now, I just couldn't bear to be apart from you." She buried her face back into his chest, leaving him more confused then before.

"So Naruto, anything you want to tell us?" Naru looked at him, fury in her eyes. He noticed some of the other girls in the room were giving him strange looks. Sakura looked upset, as did Hinata, Shinobu and Su. He shook his head. "I'm sorry guys, I don't know any more then you do."

^^^

"Where do these weirdo's keep popping up from?" Naru muttered to herself as she cleaned a few dishes in the kitchen. Naruto and the strange girl was still in the living room, with the boy still battling to get the girl off of him. "I swear, we're going to be overrun if this keeps up." She sighed.

She heard footsteps come into the kitchen. "um... Naru?" Shinobu's timid voice called out her name fearfully, as though expecting the older girl to turn round and bite her head off. "Yes, what is it Shinobu?" Annoyance crept into her voice as she dried the dish she had just cleaned. She couldn't help it. She was born with a short-temper with a fuse soaked in aviation fuel.

"I was just wondering... Is that girl related to Naruto, do you think?" Shinobu sounded worried. What was she even worried about? "I don't know, Shinobu." Naru shook her head slowly, her mind still processing through the most recent events.  
She was curious about this new girl though. "How about you find out?" She asked simply.

"W-what!?" Shinobu's startled reaction almost got a grin out of her. She was glad she had her back turned to the blue-haired girl. "Oh come on now Shinobu! It won't be that hard, just spy on the two of them for me."

"Spy on them!? But that's... well... Spying!"

"No kidding. Listen, what's the worst that could happen? And before you even think of that, think about what's the best that could happen! You get to find out all about Naruto and that fire headed girl."

Naru turned around to face the girl. She noticed a slight blush on the younger girl's face. Grinning to herself, she put a hand on Shinobu's shoulder. "They should still be in the living room, if Naruto hasn't managed to get that girl off him yet. Keep an eye on him, then we can find out what's going on around here."

With a small nod, Shinobu walked out of the room slowly.

^^^

_This is so not my day..._

Naruto and the strange girl were still in an entangled mess on the living room sofa. He'd given up ages ago trying to get the girl to let go of him. It just wasn't going to happen, she was incredibly strong.

She was softly nuzzling into his chest, making a soft, purring noise. He opened his mouth to try talking to her again, but closed it again. He just couldn't talk to her, his mind was slightly more occupied with how beautiful she looked.  
Stirring softly, the girl looked up at him. Her eyes opened up, and he got to see the beautiful crimson that lay within. Looking into her eyes was like looking at the sky, just as the sun was setting. It reminded him of the beautiful sunsets he used to watch sitting on top of the Hokage's monument.

"Naruto...?"

Her voice was so soft, but ever so slightly aggressive too. It reminded him that she had a playful side to her as well. "What is it?" He was beginning to get lost in her eyes.  
She began tracing the contours of his chest with her finger. "Do you really not remember me at all?" He could hear sadness in her voice. But no matter what, he couldn't remember for the life of him where he might've seen this girl before, no matter how hard she tried. He shook his head sadly. "I honestly can't remember. All I can say is that I feel as though I know you."

The girl sighed. She moved so that she was leaning on his chest with her elbows. "Well that's something at least..." She muttered to herself. She looked down at the young ninja, who looked a bit uncomfortable. He wasn't used to girls lying on top of him. It felt nice, and something he'd definitely want to get used to.  
She grinned slyly. "You don't get many girls on top of you, don't you?" He shook his head slowly. His voice had stopped working. "Well, I intend to change that while I'm around." She winked playfully at him. "And only me. If the other girls around here start running after you, they'll be hell to pay." She smiled sweetly. She was like a mix between Anko and Sakura. Aggressive, but extremely attractive at the same time.

"It's times like these that having Jiraiya as a sensei really does help." He thought. "Now if only I'd actually paid attention when he talked about girls..."

"Can I ask something?" He was curious, and surprised he hadn't asked this already. The girl nodded at him. "Sure, you can ask me anything, my precious Naruto." She smiled a genuinely sweet smile. He looked into her eyes softly. "I know I can't remember you well. And I really wish that I did. But until my memory gets itself out of the clouds, could you tell me your name?"  
The girl was surprised. "My name...?" Naruto nodded. "I don't know you're name yet. And it's not fair, because you already know, or remember my name." The girl nodded. "S-sure..." She sounded worried. "My name is..." She stuttered for a moment.

He waited patiently. "You're name is...?" He said softly. "It's..." Her eyes suddenly lit up. "Kyoko!" She nodded. "My name is Kyoko."

"Kyoko... You have a very nice name."

"Why thank you, Naruto." She leaned into his chest again. "That's a nice thing to say." She closed her eyes.

"So, Kyoko... What are you going to do now that you've found me?"

She looked up at him again. "What do you mean?" He looked back at her. "Well, now that you've found me, what's going to happen?" She thought about it for a moment, her eyes crossing in thought. "I don't know." She said happily as she leant her head back onto his chest. "I guess I'll figure it out when the times comes that I have to."  
He sighed, giving up once again. He leant his head back onto a pillow and closed his eyes. "Now what do I do?" He thought despairingly. He sighed and tried to doze off.

He was woken up a few minutes later, by something soft pressing on his lips. His eyes flew open, waking up to Kyoko gently kissing him, her eyes closed. It didn't last long, but it felt like an eternity.  
When she eventually drew back and opened her eyes, she smiled. "I finally get to kiss you, Naruto." Her voice sounded a lot more sensual. It was beginning to turn him on.  
"I've waited such a long time, Naruto..." She closed her eyes and leaned in for another kiss. Naruto could only watch as her lips crashed onto his. This kiss was a lot more aggressive then the last one...

^^^

Shinobu gasped as she stepped back from the peep hole. Naruto and that strange girl were making out on the sofa in the living room!

With the images of what she saw racing through her mind, it brought about a startling realisation to the teenage girl.

"Am I jealous?"


	4. Dearly Beloved

'Promise'

Chapter 4: _Dearly Beloved_

His first night at the Hinata Apartments had been nothing but chaos.

There were plenty of rooms, so he could pick any of them. He didn't really fancy staying on the same floor as Naru. And Motoko and Kitsune were alright, but persistently bugging him with random questions and proposals, either to do with his fighting skills, or how much money he'd be able to make with them. He would've like to stay on Hinata's floor, but she shared it with Naru and Motoko.

He decided to stay on the same floor as Sakura and Shinobu. Two girls out of the apartments who weren't going to do something strange to him or annoy him. It had a great view over the small town surrounding the hot springs, which was almost always enhanced by the faint mist that swept over the town from the heated water.

After he had picked his room, the second problem came up.

Kyoko simply refused to sleep in a separate room to his. She still hadn't let him go either, clinging on to his arm as though he would fade away at some point.. After a while, this began to take its toll on Naru's patience.

"There's no way you're sleeping in his room!!" Naru's temple was throbbing painfully.

"There's no way you're getting me to sleep away from the boy I've spent my whole life trying to find." Kyoko's stubbornness was giving Naru a run for her money. All of the other occupants recognised the warning signs and were watching from a distance. Naruto only wished that he could do the same.

"We understand how you feel, Kyoko." Keitaro bravely decided to step into the mess and stick to his duty as apartment manager. "Which is why you can sleep in the room right next to him."

_That's not gonna do much. She'll just sneak into my room while everyone's asleep._

Naruto shook his head. The problems just kept coming and coming. Kyoko held onto his arm tighter while she though about the new proposition. After a while she looked at Keitaro and nodded.

"I'll sleep in the room next door then. At least I'll be the closest to him."

_Am I ever gonna be rid of this girl?_

_"_It's decided then. Kyoko will stay in the room next door to Naruto. I think its about time everybody got to bed." Keitaro finalised the decision and promptly yawned, stretching out his arms. Naruto looked at him, wishing he could stretch freely.

...

The futon was comfortable. The room was warm. There was practically no light and the door was shut. But for some reason, he just couldn't sleep. So much had happened in just one day, his mind was still trying process everything that had happened.

He rolled, leaning on his side. Staring at a random closet in his room, he began thinking about Kyoko, imagining that he could see her through the wall of his room into hers.  
Her long, fiery-red hair. Her soft, crimson eyes. Her slim figure, and god, her amazing legs. He was having a hard time trying not to think about the buxom goddess sleeping just next door. Maybe that was why he couldn't sleep.

He closed his eyes and tried to think of something else. The first thing that came into his mind, was Sakura.

"_For god sake. If its not one girl, its another. Next it'll be Hinata." _He growled at himself mentally. Pushing the three girls out of his head for now, he began to think about Konoha, and his old life back in the Leaf Village. It was hard to believe he had only been gone a day or two.

"_I wonder if everyone's alright back home... Sasuke. Kakashi-sensei. Iruka. Pervy Sage. Grandma Tsunade. Kiba. Lee. Neji. Ino. Choji. Shikamaru..." _He slowly began closing his eyes. After a few moments, his eyes closed, allowing him to drift into unconsciousness.

After a few moments of silence, the door to his room slid open. Silhouetted by the dark, a figure walked into the room. Tiptoeing next to Naruto's sleeping form, the figure sat down next to him.

"You've only been here a day."

Shinobu's timid voice cut through the silence of the room, barely above a whisper. She watched Naruto as he slowly inhaled and exhaled, sleeping soundly. It was a strange feeling watching him breathe ever so softly. It was peaceful, somehow. She felt as though she could watch him for hours, watching his chest rise, up and down.

She sighed softly. "How did you do it, Naruto? It's only been a day. Yet already, there's just something about you that... attracts me."

Her eyes began tracing the features of his face. His closed eyes, his faintly scarred cheeks that looked like whiskers. And his soft lips.  
Her eyes lingered on them. They looked inviting. Her whole body was stiff with nerves.

"_Can I...?"_

She leant in slowly. Her mind had gone numb, she was letting her body take over. Her face suddenly felt a lot warmer, and her hands were shaking. She suddenly realised she was only inches away from Naruto's face, she could feel his breath against her face.  
She had a hand on the floor on each side of Naruto's head. Her hair was beginning to fall onto his forehead, and she could make out every detail of his face.

He was handsome. At least, he was to her. Her eyes quickly scanned his face again, checking for any signs that his return to consciousness could be imminent. She couldn't see any. Her eyes drifted down to his thin lips once again.

Closing her eyes slightly, she leant in closer, brushing her lips gently against his. It was only a short kiss, but it seemed like forever to her.  
When she finally broke apart, her eyes opened again. She was shocked she had done what she had.  
She was Shinobu, the shy, little girl. She wasn't ever this bold.

She gently stood up, and slowly walked over to the door again. Opening it slowly, she stepped out and looked back at Naruto, leaning on the door frame.

"Oh Naruto..."

The door slid shut softly. Footsteps squeaked slowly, fading away from his room. Naruto opened his eyes slowly and looked at the door.

"Shinobu..."

...

"Wake up, sleepyhead!"

A loud voice was coming from somewhere above him. Sticking his head underneath his pillow, he began to mumble something about insensitive woman.

"Come on, get up!"

The pillow was wrenched from his hands and thrown a few feet away. Blinding light began entering his eyes, irritating him.

"Kyoko, come on, another five minutes, seriously..."

He crossed his arms and began snoozing on them. After a few moments he looked up at the wide open balcony window.  
He was lying on his front, and he had just realised that the girl was sitting on top of him.

"Kyoko isn't awake yet, dummy. That's another thing you two seem to have in common. You can both sleep through the chaos around this place."

His heart momentarily skipped a beat. _Was that Sakura's voice!?_

"Come on! You are so lazy! You'd sleep for a month if I didn't make the effort to come in here and drag you out of bed."

He snorted. "I wouldn't exactly call this dragging me out of bed Sakura. It seems more like you want to keep me in it."

"Maybe I do."

His whole body suddenly froze. _What!?_

He felt Sakura's weight shift as she laid down on top of him, resting her head on his shoulder. He could feel her breathing right next to his right ear.

"We can't let Kyoko keep you all to herself now, can we Naruto?" She gently teased him. She let her head drop on the futon next to him. Naruto turned to face her, suddenly realizing how close their faces were. He felt his own facial temperature sky-rocket.

"It seems like somebody's enjoying themselves." She giggled softly. She began slowly rubbing her leg up and down his thigh. Moving her head so that she could whisper into his ear, she spoke softly.

"Kyoko and me. We're the same.  
We both like you Naruto. Sadly though, we both can't have you for ourselves."

She stopped moving and looked at him, straight into his eyes.

"Sooner or later, you're going to have to choose. And not just out of Kyoko and me either." The tip of her nose was rubbing against his own. His heartbeat was running a marathon, and he was sure his face looked like a cauldron of seething magma.

"Naruto..." Her jade eyes sparkled in the early morning sun. She closed them softly, and leaned forward, gently planting a soft kiss on his lips.

"I love you."

His whole body was now numb. His brain had completely failed on him and he was speechless. He had no idea what he was supposed to do, say or think.  
Slowly, Sakura began standing up off of him. He suddenly sat up in his futon. "Sakura..."

"I'm not letting Kyoko take you away from me." She turned around to face him. "Believe it." She winked and stuck her tongue out cheekily at him. She walked over to his door, slid it open, peeked outside to check the corridor was clear, and turned to face him again.

"Breakfast is ready, so get up, get dressed, and get your butt downstairs." She blew him a kiss and walked out of his room, sliding the door shut behind her.

Naruto stared at the door, his brain beginning to thaw itself out. His jaw was hanging open and his mind was still in complete shock.  
_  
What the hell!?_

* * *

Was it my intent from the beginning? I really don't know. But hey, it's turning out to be fun, isn't it?  
R&R x100 and make me happy ^^


	5. The Dos and Don'ts of being a Shinobi

'Promise'

Chapter 5: The Do's & Don't's of being a Ninja

The beautiful smell of lunch wafted throughout the apartments.  
Keitaro Urashima was in his room, his stomach growling in response to the smell of good food invading his personal space.

Grimacing, he looked at the assignment on his desk that Tokyo University had set him to do over the next week. "I'm going to need Naru's help with this one." He sighed. "It's way too hard to do on my own."  
Just as he was pondering how he would ask the girl for help, the door to his room slid open furiously.

"Keitaro!!" Naru's voice bellowed through his room.

"Hello Naru. I was just going to look for you actually, I..."

"Whatever it is, it can wait! We have a situation, and I really need the 'landlord' to co-operate." Naru's heavy breathing and angry words warned him of trouble. Something was wrong and was going to completely ruin his plans for the afternoon.

"What's the situation then?"

Naru took a moment to catch her breath, leaning on his door frame for support. Looking up at him with her deep brown eyes, he was surprised to see a little bit of worry inside of them.

"We have a visitor at the apartment. It's a guy and it's one of Sakura's friends from that school she goes to. He's requesting that he sees Naruto Uzumaki, although he didn't say why. And his name is Sasuke Uchiha."

...

Having recovered from the baffling morning he'd just had, Naruto was on the roof of the Hinata Apartments, trying to figure out what was going on. His mind was full of what had happened the night before, and the morning after.

He was sitting cross legged, trying to concentrate, when a voice called out throughout the Hinata Apartments.

"Lunch is ready!" Shinobu's timid voice was carried by the echo, and the wind. Without a second thought, Naruto darted from the roof and raced throughout the building.  
He was sitting at the dining room table, five seconds after starting from the roof.

Strangely though, somebody had beaten him to the table. A certain blue-haired Hyuuga princess, who was waiting patiently for the others to arrive before digging into her lunch.

"Oh, hello Naruto." Hinata cheerfully waved at him.

"Hello Hinata..." He wasn't quite sure what to think of Hinata. Back in Konoha, she was a shy girl who could barely form a sentence with words, unless she was absolutely determined about something. This Hinata was a lot more outgoing, but still shared the same timidness she had back home. She reminded him of Shinobu in more ways then one.

One thing was for sure. She had no problem talking to him in this world.

"So how was your day, Naruto?" She smiled at him as the others started walking through the door. Sakura and Kyoko both walked in last, both looking extremely annoyed about something.

Keeping a worried eye on the pair of them, he replied. "It was alright. Just another day trying to figure out who I am, what I'm doing here, and where I am exactly. Although I think I'm close to figuring out an answer for all three of them."

"I'm glad." She replied, just as Sakura and Kyoko both began to noisily devour their food. It sounded like they were racing to see who would suffer indigestion first. It was unnerving for him, as he was sure something was up. And it was almost definitely related to him in some way or another.

Hinata was also looking at the two girls with a worried look. Her eyes quickly glanced at him, he grimaced back as a way of saying it would soon turn ugly. A small smile appeared on her face briefly, although her eyes were still full of worry. She opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the sound of the two girls throwing down their chopsticks.

"Thank you for the food." They said in unison, staring at each other with hatred. As much as he wanted to soothe the tension in the room, he was actually afraid of what the girls would do to him if he opened his mouth. Unfortunately it was Shinobu who took the bullet.

"My, you girls ate quickly. Can I get you some more?"

The two girls didn't say anything. They were still staring at each other, clutching the table as hard as they could.  
Shinobu looked at the two girls, worry beginning to flood her eyes as well.

"um, girls?"

"That's it!"

Sakura was the one who spoke, or rather, bellowed across the table first. Naruto could feel killer intent in the room, and it was terrifying him.

"Just drop it! So what about this morning! You shouldn't be so clingy with him, you're not the only one who loves him!"

He suddenly realised what she was talking about, and leant his head on the table. His day had just gone from confusing, to downright chaos. He just wanted to be anywhere but where he was right now.

Kyoko wasn't taking any of it.

"I don't care, he's mine! I've known him since he was a small child! We literally grew up together!  
I'm not going to let a brat like you take him away from me!"

"A brat like me!? That's it!" Sakura grabbed Kyoko by the hair and dunked her face in what was left of the chilli dip. Kyoko's penetrating scream echoed throughout the apartments, howling like a demon.  
Her face was now covered in spicy sauce, and some of it had gotten into her eyes. Tears spilled out from her closed eyelids, as she clawed at her face, trying to wipe away the sauce.

"It stings... Naruto, help me!!" She was sobbing while dabbing her face and eyes with a napkin. Sakura still wasn't finished, bringing her arm back while she prepared to throw a punch.

"Sakura!" Naruto stood up, and was about to jump on the girl to prevent it from happening, when he heard the distinct whistle of a kunai rip through the air, in between the two girls.  
Sakura immediately took a step back. Naruto looked behind him, to see who threw the kunai.

He wasn't expecting to see Hinata with her arm outstretched.

As she lowered her arm, she looked at the two girls. She sighed and looked at Naruto. "Take Kyoko to the kitchen. Help her wash her eyes out with the fresh water." He nodded, walking over to the girl. She was still sobbing in pain.

"It's gonna be okay. Lets get that stuff out of your eyes." He led the girl into the kitchen. The two were quickly followed by a terrified Shinobu.

That left the rest of the occupants of the house, minus Naru and Keitaro gaping at what had just happened. Sakura was still staring at Hinata, a terrified look on her face.  
On the other hand, Hinata wore a face of determination.

"Why did you do that, Sakura?"

Sakura's expression changed from terror, to shame. She looked at the floor, feeling ashamed of herself.

"I..."

"You really hurt her, y'know? And you could have blinded her..."

"I know..."

"And not only that, you were going to finish her off too... That's terrible Sakura."

"But I..."

"Why were you so angry? Something must have happened to make you this angry."

Sakura didn't reply. Tears began rolling down her face, slowly dripping on floor with a soft pat. With a cry, she ran out of the room, sliding the door shut with a bang behind her. The sound of footsteps began racing upstairs as Sakura ran crying to her room.

"I think I might be able to answer that one, Hinata." Naruto came back from the kitchen, his arm around Kyoko's shoulders. Her face was slightly red, and her eyes a bit bloodshot, but she seemed fine otherwise. Albeit, she looked like she was about to cry again.

"It's my fault. They were fighting over me, and that's why Sakura did what she did."

"But Naruto..."

Naruto shook his head. "I think Kyoko has something to say as well."

The fire-headed girl nodded, and wiped her eyes. Looking up at the others, she cleared her throat. "I'm sorry. It's my fault. Me and Sakura had an argument earlier." Her eyes looked down at her shoes. "I said a lot of...mean things to her. We were just so angry, and it was because we both want Naruto..."

Several occupants of the room gasped. Naruto tried to look as though this was news to him, and failed miserably. Shinobu, who was standing behind Naruto and Kyoko, looked as though she was about to faint.

Kyoko bowed apologetically the everyone. "I'm really sorry everyone. I've caused everyone a lot of trouble, and it's not right. I'm going to go find Sakura and apologise to her." And with that she left the room, running up the stairs after Sakura.

Everybody's eyes turned to Naruto.

"It looks like your in trouble now. There's two of them after you." Kitsune said. "And just your luck they're the two violent girls of the apartments, second to Naru.

"Never mind about that now." Naruto looked over at Hinata. "You used a kunai. That must mean your a ninja."

Hinata shook her head. "Unfortunately, I'm not. I can't really fight at all, I'm useless in combat. I was once taught by someone how to use kunai, but..." Her eyes looked away. "He left, without teaching me how to actually fight."

"Oh..." Naruto sounded disappointed. He was hoping that Hinata could still remember her old life. As a Leaf kunoichi.

Hinata continued. "The only thing I have left is this." She put her her hands together, creating a hand sign.

"Byakugan!"

The veins around her eyes pulsed, while the eyes themselves focused. Naruto stood, watching her use her kekkai genkai that he recognised so well.

"With this I have an almost 360 degree field of vision, and can see for approximately two kilometres."

The others in the room gasped. They had never seen Hinata like this before, and didn't know about her skills. "That's incredible..." Motoko murmured.

Hinata dropped the Byakugan and her eyes returned to normal. She looked at Naruto and smiled.

"So... what do you think? Impressed?"

He could only nod, even if he had seen the technique used before. She sounded like she would be upset if he did anything else.  
Her smile grew. A small blush tinged her cheeks.

"Thank you, Naruto."

He smiled back. He could see the old Hinata, blushing away in his mind. It was nostalgic.

The door to the kitchen slid open. Keitaro walked in, with a worried expression. He looked at Naruto, and gestured to the door. "Naruto, you have a visitor."  
Naru walked into the room, followed swiftly by a face he would never forget.

Sasuke Uchiha. His old rival from Konoha. And one of his best friends.

"Hello loser. It's time to take you home."

* * *

Interesting...  
And yeah. Review! ^^


	6. Remains of a Memory

Edit: Changed 'Shoujo' to 'Shonen'. Lol, took a couple of reviews to finally realise. Thanks guys.

* * *

'Promise'

Chapter 6: Remains of a Memory.

_Sasuke explained everything to me._

_I was right. This isn't my world.  
This is all a dream._

_A dream, or as he put it, an extremely complicated genjutsu. Somebody is controlling my mind from the outside.  
And making this dream a reality._

_And not just me either._

_According to Sasuke, lying in the Infirmary in Konoha are three comatose ninja. Sakura, Hinata and me.  
Chakra is flowing around and inside our bodies, but its confirmed to only partially be our own. Somebody is mixing their chakra into our chakra system, which is why we're dreaming right now._

_Actually, that was partially a lie.  
There are four comatose ninja, if you now count Sasuke._

_********_

It was sunrise. The sun was glowing a deep crimson as the sun broke the surface of the horizon. The birds had begun singing, flying in and out of the mist surrounding the Hinata Apartments.

Naruto was sitting on the roof once again. Sasuke was sitting next to him, watching the sunrise with him. He had just explained the situation to Naruto, who was having a hard time taking it in.

"So you're telling me we've been here for a month?" Naruto scratched his head. He could have sworn he had been here for barely three or four days.

"Yup." Sasuke nodded. "I've been in for about two weeks, but this feels like my second day."

"How can you figure out the time between the real world and the dream world?" Naruto asked curiously. He was really confused.

Sasuke smiled. He knew it would be hard for Naruto to take in. Even he had trouble figuring it out himself.

"Okay, basically, you and the others had been comatose for two weeks already before the Hokage and the others decided to send me in. If you take that information, and then combine it with what you're saying, it basically works out that time moves a lot slower in this world. To be exact, a day here more or less equals a week back in Konoha."

Naruto nodded. That was far more easier to understand.

"So now that you're here, doesn't that mean you're trapped in the dream world, like me?"

Sasuke nodded. "Yeah, it does. Although, I have the information that will eventually get us out of here."

"Oh yeah? And what's that?"

Sasuke took in a breath, and began. "Tsunade explained to me how their seemed to be an external influence on the chakra that's surrounding the bodies of you, me and the others. Somebody is interfering with the natural flow of chakra inside the bodies, rendering them comatose. Even I could have guessed that, all you had to do was look at the bodies.  
The aura of chakra is normally icy blue. But occasionally, the chakra surrounding you three would change into a fiery red."

"This means that somebody is mixing their chakra into your chakra network. It not actually anything new, ninja have been using this technique to create extremely powerful genjutsu for decades. It's essentially using your chakra to hijack somebody else's chakra network.  
However, this can be dangerous. If used badly, the victim's chakra network begins to shut down. If left long enough, this can kill the victim."

Naruto perked up. "So we could die?"

Sasuke nodded. "Yeah. Actually I have a good example. Remember Neji and Hinata's fight at the Chunin exams? They were using that special fighting style, gentle fist. This is basically exactly what I'm talking about, using your own chakra to shut down your opponents chakra points, leaving whole limbs or full bodies completely paralysed.  
However, that was a mix between ninjutsu and taijutsu. What we're experiencing is purely genjutsu. An illusionary dream."

"A dream..." Naruto wondered if he would ever wake up from it. It seemed really complicated to him, it sounded only an extremely skilled ninja could pull this off, with a hell of a lot of chakra at his disposal.

"Tsunade told me that she isn't too worried about you and the others dying from this.  
The thing she's worried about the most is your memories."

"Our memories!?" Naruto panicked. He was going to forget everything. Crap!

Sasuke nodded again. "Interference like this could lead to severe damage with the memories of the victim. Whoever is controlling us is essentially fiddling around with our brains. Anything could happen."

"So what do we do? How do we stop the dream?" Naruto said fearfully. He didn't want to lose his memories. Some of them were extremely precious to him.

Sasuke paused for a moment. He looked over at the rising sun, shadows appearing across his face.

"We need to find the source of the genjutsu, and destroy it."

"How the hell do we find the source of the genjutsu? What is it supposed to look like, a tree!?"

Sasuke smirked. "No dumbass. Tsunade told me that we're looking for a person. A ninja specifically. Or at least, somebody who can mould chakra."

"The only person here other than me and you who can mould chakra is Hinata. And she's supposed to be comatose too, so it can't be her."

"It's gotta be somebody else then. There's got to be another person here, hiding a secret. We'll need to keep our eyes and ears open if we want to find this guy." Sasuke sighed.

The two of them went quiet. Naruto was busy processing everything he had just learnt in his mind. But something didn't quite click and it was bothering him.  
"How did you get into the dream then? The guy who originally set up this genjutsu didn't include you from the start, so how did you get in?"

"Tsunade did it. She called it a really complicated jutsu that mixes a ninja's chakra into a chakra network. She explained to me what I had to do, put me to sleep and I guess she mixed my chakra in with you guys. And now I'm here." He smirked. "In this crazy ass dream, stuck inside a shounen manga story, with a twist."

"Well, I guess its starting to make sense now." Naruto said cheerfully. "All we have to do is find the guy who's screwing around with our heads, and beat the crap out of him."

"Oh yeah sure, that sounds simple enough..."

_********_

Naruto and Sasuke walked back into the Hinata Apartments. Sasuke had already come up with a story and fitted in with Naruto's amnesia story, saying that it was 'obvious the dobe would pick a story that requires the least amount of effort to maintain', which basically ended up with Sasuke saying he was Naruto's distant cousin and was worried about Naruto because he had a memory disorder.  
Keitaro, being slow, bought the story and offered to let Sasuke stay for a while, until they decided what they would do now. This didn't sit too well with Naru, who was fuming about how she thought the apartments would soon be overrun with 'smelly, horny males' and that none of the girls would be safe.

Surprisingly, it didn't sit too well with Sakura either. When Naruto asked Sasuke about this, and why she wasn't hanging off his arm like she used to do, he just shrugged and replied. "I think I made a bad impression on her when I transferred into her school here. Something about being 'cold, and heartless'. I had no idea what she was talking about, and I really didn't care. But it sure beats her constantly asking me out on dates and trying to grab my attention." He smiled and put a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Maybe you'll get your chance with her now." He almost died laughing after Naruto told him about what had happened over the past few days.

"I can't believe I missed that." He laughed. "Sakura dunking some poor girls face into a tub of hot sauce." He cackled, something that sounded creepy coming from Sasuke Uchiha's mouth.  
"That reminds me, I still have to meet this 'Kyoko' that Sakura's all wound up over. She sounds very interesting."

"Why interesting?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Because she's in love with an idiot like you, that's why. But seriously, it sounds like she's completely obsessed with you, not to mention trying and failing to beat off Sakura who's also after you now. I kinda feel sorry for you." Sasuke grinned evilly.

"Thanks...teme."

"You're welcome, dobe. And you're more than welcome to keep Sakura when we get back home. I'd rather have quiet little Hinata with the stupid crush on a boy she's never going to work up the courage to ask out in a million years, then a loud-mouthed bubblegum head like Sakura who never shuts up about flowers and whether I'm free on such-and-such a day to go on a date. I mean, seriously..."

Naruto blinked. "Hinata's got a crush on somebody? Seriously!? Who is it?"

Sasuke raised a hand to his forehead and groaned. "You're a complete idiot Naruto, you know that?"

"What? Nobody told me Hinata had a crush on-"

While they were talking and walking down the hall, Naruto didn't notice a girl walking out of her room, until they were on the floor in a tangled heap, having bumped into each other. All he could see was crimson red hair.

"Naruto you idiot." Sasuke knelt down next to the two fallen bodies. "Is this that girl you were telling me about?"

The red hair moved, and he suddenly recognised Kyoko was lying on top of him, dazed. He nodded. "Yeah, this is her."

Kyoko shook her head and mumbled something about idiots not looking where there walking. She looked up and caught herself staring into Naruto's cerulean blue eyes.  
"Oh Naruto, its you!"

She quickly threw her arms around his neck, snuggling into his chest. "Where have you been all day? I was looking for you."

"um, I was-"

"It doesn't even matter. You here now, and I can hug you forever!"

"But I..."

"Shut up Naruto, I'm enjoying my hug."

"um, okay..."

Sasuke was desperately trying not to laugh, but suddenly put on a serious face when he noticed who was coming up the stairs. "Um, Naruto. This could be a problem."

"What? He looked up, and saw Sakura coming up the stairs. "Oh crap..." He tried wiggling out from underneath Kyoko, but she just held onto him tighter.

"You're not going anywhere, Naruto."

"But Sakura's coming..."

"Sakura's fine with it. She and I had a chat and decided that maybe we could share you, until you decide who it is you want to choose."

"...You're kidding me."

"Nope."

Sakura walked towards them, and smiled. Naruto heaved a sigh of relief. He was expecting to get pounded into the ground, alongside Kyoko.

"Hey, don't hog him all to yourself Kyoko. Let me join in!" She promptly jumped on top of the two of them, wrapping her arms around his neck. He could barely breathe, and he could've sworn his face was as hot as the sun.  
He turned to face Sasuke. "Help...me..." He said weakly.

Sasuke was doubling up with laughter, which only served to completely annoy him. He was going to make him pay for it later.

He turned his attention back to the two girls. "So, um... You two are okay with this, definitely?"

Sakura looked up and nodded. "Yeah, definitely. We've left the choice completely up to you. Now all you have to do choose." Her jade eyes sparkled in the morning sun, just like they did on that morning she kissed him. "However, there is one problem..."

It was Kyoko's turn to look up. She grinned mischievously, her crimson eyes also sparkling beautifully. "It's not just me and Sakura anymore. Now you've got Hinata and Shinobu out to steal your heart."

"What!?" He yelled out wildly. "You've got to be kidding me!?"

The two girls shook their head. "We were talking about this when we were both apologising to each other about what happened the other day." Sakura began.  
"After we had finished, Hinata and Shinobu both came in and suddenly came out and confessed their love for you in front of us. They also said they wanted to share you peacefully, but they would fight for you if they had to."

"However..." Kyoko continued. "After what happened before, we thought it was a better idea to just share you instead. So, as a result, we've officially created the Naruto Love fan club, where we can talk about you, draw about you, imagine what we would get up to if we had you alone for twenty-four hours and stuff like that."

"So now we don't have to fight anymore." Sakura said cheerfully. "At least, not physically." Both of the girls giggled evilly, terrifying him.

Naruto leant his head back against the floor and looked up at the ceiling. "My life is over.

Sasuke was on the floor, laughing so hard you could see dribble flying from his mouth.

"Teme, if you don't shut up in the next five seconds, I'm going to find the biggest tub of the spiciest chilli's I can get my hands on, and sink your face so hard into it, you'll be blind for a month!"

"I don't care, this is so totally worth it!"

* * *

Complicated now, huh?  
Hopefully this should answer a few questions, and create a hell of a lot more. But don't worry, all questions will be answered as the story goes on. ^^

Read, review, you know the drill.  
Shigure out.

Edit: Thank you for the constructive criticism guys. I'll be editing this story as it goes along, so keep it up!!


	7. The First Move of the NineTailed Fox

I'm sorry it's been a few days. I was ill, bad fever and all the rest of it. To make it up, this is the longest chapter of 'Promise' I've written so far.  
And also the most exciting.

* * *

'Promise'

Chapter 7: How to Tame a Nine-Tailed Fox.

He had been at the apartments for a week.

In that one week, he had managed to capture the hearts of four different girls without even trying. Which, in a surprising way, only served to excite a tiny bit of his brain.  
The rest of his brain was taken up by the whole genjutsu scenario, realising that this whole thing was pretty much a dream, worrying about the fact that he could lose all of his memories of the past, and also realising that once he woke up from this dream, it would be back to the old life.

His ninja life. One where everything didn't involve a simple, peaceful life like he was living now.

Getting his meals cooked by beautiful Shinobu. Getting pounced on by Kyoko or Sakura every time his back was turned.  
Having deep conversations with Hinata, which was something he would definitely not get back home!

He wasn't sure. Part of him wanted to go back home, back to the familiar life. Back to his friends, back to his home, where he belonged.

But part of him wanted to stay. The side of him that wanted to dream forever, escaping the harsh reality of his life back home.  
The life without Shinobu's great food. The life where Sakura didn't actually love him, as far as he knew. The life where Hinata had trouble saying more than five words to him without dropping in to a crumpled heap in front of him.

And a life without Kyoko, the crimson goddess who knew him from a past he couldn't remember.

It would be back to a place where half of the population despised him. His home, the Hidden Leaf Village of Konoha.  
Sure it had got a lot better recently. The people didn't stare at him like he was a monster. Well, some of them didn't anyway. Not anymore.

But some of them did. The ones that couldn't simply forget about the attack of the Nine-Tailed Fox, the Kyuubi. The ones that were convinced that, as a container of the Kyuubi and the seal that was holding back its dreadful power, he was just as much of a monster as the demon itself.  
These were the ones that still looked at him with hatred in their eyes. The ones who had lost so much that was precious to them. The ones who spat at him, called him the worst names, beat him and turned their back on him.

He would have to go back home and face them again. Back to the old life of trying to prove to them he wasn't just a demon, just its container. Back to a life where he dreamed of becoming Hokage someday.

Was that what he really wanted?

He wasn't sure. But he knew that, after this mission was over, he would know the answer to that.

************

"Naruto! Get your butt out now!" There was a ferocious pounding on his door.

At eight in the morning, he really didn't want a ferocious pounding on his door. He wanted sleep, and as much of it as possible.

"Go away, its still early!"

"No Naruto! I want to play!"

"I can think of about six other people in these apartments that are probably a lot more fun to play with than me right now. Except Sasuke. Why don't you go and bother them?"

"But I want to play with you, Naruto!" The voice was very high-pitched and annoying. He stuck a pillow over his head, but it didn't really help much.

"Listen, whoever it is, Kyoko, Sakura, I just want another few minutes, is that too much to ask?"

The voice went quiet. Breathing a sigh of relief, he removed the pillow and stuck it back behind his head. "Thank god that's over..."

He slowly opened his eyes, his slowly wakening body slowly losing sync with his mind. They opened up to a pair of tanned, slim legs either side of him, a school uniform type skirt, and a pair of soft, white panties.

Closing his eyes again slowly, he groaned. "I really hope this is a dream." He said through gritted teeth. "Otherwise, this'll be the third day in a row I've woken up with a girl in my room."

"It's not a dream Naruto!" The unmistakable voice of Kaolla Su towered over him. "And I want to play!" She jumped into the air, and landed on top of him, knocking the air out of his lungs.  
With him now incapacitated, she proceeded to lie on top of him, creating more pressure on his already abused torso.

Even though it had only begun, it wasn't turning out to be a good start to another day at the Hinata Apartments.

He looked up at Su's cheerfully grinning face. As cute as she was, even for a hyperactive teenager like himself, she was way too much. Somebody needed to buy this girl some tranquillizers.

"Play with me Naruto! Please!"

"ugh, Okay fine. But if you do this again tomorrow, I'm gonna kill you." He sat up, painfully aware that Su was sitting on him. He looked at Su, annoyance covering his expression.

"You gotta get off then. I can't move if your on top."

"But you let all the other girls on top." Even though she said it so simply, the statement hit him hard. She made him sound like a womaniser.

"That's not true, and it wasn't all the girls." He growled. "It was only a few of them..." He added, mumbling.

Kaolla looked at him, a mischievous smile on her face. Pushing his torso onto the ground again, she leaned in close to his face.

"Kyoko, Sakura, Hinata, Shinobu..." She listed off the girls, her eyes becoming more suggestive with each syllable. "That's four girls already, another girl won't hurt, right?" She leaned in closer, her eyes closing softly.  
The Naruto underneath her grinned. With a loud pop and a cloud of smoke, the clone Su was lying on vanished.

The real Naruto came out from a closet in his room, still wearing the same grin. Su looked up at him with a pout. "That was mean, Naruto." Her expression looked angry, although there seemed to be something playful in her eyes.

"I know..." His grin slowly faded away. "Su, that makes you girl number five." He groaned, putting a hand on his forehead. This was turning into some sort of crazy, harem love-fest. And he was the bait.

"So? The others girls don't matter, it can be just me and you Naruto!" Su leaped up from the floor and flung her arms around his neck. Almost losing his balanced, he leaned on his bedroom door for balance.

"That's it." He heaved. He opened his bedroom door and struggled outside, with Su hanging off his neck. "Someone help!" He wailed. "Preferably a male!"

Sasuke had taken up residence in an empty room next to Shinobu. He opened his door, yawning. "What's with all the noise, dobe?"

"Sasuke! Perfect, I need your help." Naruto pointed to the girl hanging off his neck. "Get her off me!"

"You're kidding, right?"

"No I'm not kidding! Before any of the other girls find out and kill me... or each other."

"But that's just effort, dobe..."

Naruto was becoming more and more annoyed. He just wanted to sleep, it was too early for this.

************

"So, I hear there's another girl added to your roster, Naruto." Naru was gently sipping a cup of tea while Naruto trembled in fear opposite her. He really felt that Keitaro needed his head checked. What the hell did he see in this girl?

"There's another one?" Motoko said, looking at him in surprise.

"Yeah, that's gotta be the fifth one, right?"

"This is getting out of hand..." Both girls shook their heads while sipping their tea. All he could do was sit there and pray that he survived breakfast.

The kitchen door opened. Shinobu came out holding two plates, putting them in front of Naru and Motoko. She looked up at Naruto. "I'll be out with yours in a sec Naruto." She smiled at him. She disappeared back into the kitchen.  
She hadn't acted any differently to him ever since he found out the news. Which was a relief to him in a way. But strangely unnerving.

The door to the dining room opened. Hinata walked in stretching her arms, her hair all tousled. Pulling out a chair next to Naruto, she collapsed into it and buried her head into her arms.

"What's the matter with you?" Naruto asked. He had never seen her like this before.

She looked up at him, with bloodshot eyes and an annoyed expression. "Su kept me up all night. I'm going to kill her when I get my hands on her." She buried herself into her arms again and he nodded in agreement. He shouldn't even be awake yet, but thanks to the hyperactive girl, he was up early for a change.

"Oh Hinata's up too." Shinobu smiled. She put down Naruto's breakfast in front of him. "I hope you enjoy it." She turned to Hinata and prodded her shoulder. "Are you going to be okay? Do you want some coffee?"

A vague groan came from Hinata, with a slight nod of her head. Shinobu smiled and went back into the kitchen.  
He sighed and looked down at his plate. Bacon, eggs, a small bowl of ramen on the side and toast shaped as his face. He picked it up and looked at it. "I sure didn't expect that I'd be eating my own face when I woke up this morning, but whatever..." He took a bite out of it. It tasted good.

As he began eating the rest of his breakfast, Sasuke walked through the door, taking a chair next to Hinata. As usual, his trademark scowl was in place, complimenting his tousled hair and sleepy eyes.

"Morning Sasuke!" Naruto grinned. "You look like you've been dragged through the Forest of Death."

"Morning dobe, and its better than looking stupid like you always do."

"Jeez, you're more grumpy than usual this morning." Naruto scowled, chewing his head off of a piece of Naruto-shaped toast. Sasuke just shrugged his shoulders and began digging into his breakfast.

"Now there's only two more people we're waiting for." He thought as he slowly chewed his food. "The two girls of the apartments I'm worried about the most."

Kyoko and Kaolla.

************

Ever since the magic of the abandoned Annex went out of control, the Annex has been a ruin. The magical explosion that brought together Naru and Keitaro left behind smoking ruins of a once proud building. A building that was once known as the Matchmaking Lodge.

Closed down, for fear of it's magical power being used for politically-arranged marriages, it was re-opened. Keitaro, Kanako and Naru fought to break the spell of the Annex. And they succeeded.

Two years later, the building is still destroyed. But that doesn't necessarily mean the magic has disappeared.

Standing on top of the rubble, silhouetted by the morning sun, was a lone figure. The rubble began to shake, slowly lifting off the ground around the figure. Rising high into the sky, the broken wood and destroyed beams began to connect, the building reconstructing itself from the tip of the roof.

After a few moments, the reconstruction was finished. The Annex stood tall once again.  
The hands of the old clock reflected the sunlight, displaying on its old face that the time had stopped at forty minutes past seven.

The figure that had been standing on the ruins of a previously destroyed building, now came out of the buildings entrance. Turning back to face her handiwork, she smiled with pleasure.

"It's finished. Finally, we can begin." Kyoko bowed her head at the building. "Come nightfall, you will be mine." She opened her eyes, which glowed with a red chakra.

"You will be mine, Naruto Uzumaki."

************

The sun was beginning to set. Sitting in his room, Sasuke was busy with a notepad, scribbling down a note.

_Naruto_

_I need to talk to you. Danger lurks around every corner, keep your eyes open  
and your mind sharp._

_Meet me on the rooftop at sundown._

_Sasuke_

Folding the note in half, he quietly slipped out of his room and into Naruto's. The occupant of the room was currently out, which left him plenty of time to leave the note.  
Before he left the room, his eyes picked up another note left for Naruto.

He assumed it would have been from one of the girls in the apartments. He was right.

_Naruto_

_I need to talk to you. It's time I revealed a secret I've been hiding.  
Meet me at the ruins of the abandoned Annex._

_Kyoko_

He realised that this might be a good opportunity to find out some more information. Slipping his note back into his pocket, he left Naruto's room.

"Let's see what Kyoko's hiding." Sasuke muttered.

As he left the room, he didn't notice he was being watched.  
Hinata deactivated the Byakugan, trying to process what she had just learned.

" 'The ruins of the abandoned Annex'..." She frowned. "I'd better tell Sakura about this."

She sprinted fast. As fast as she would if she was still in the Leaf Village.  
Reaching Sakura's room, she knocked on the door. "Sakura, its me."

The door slid open, revealing the pink-haired girl behind it. "What's the matter?"

Hinata nodded. "It's time."

************

Night had fallen. The trees rustled in the wind, whilst the air became colder.  
A storm was coming.

Naruto was standing outside of what was supposed to be the ruins of the abandoned Annex. He was a little bit confused as to where the building had magically reappeared from.  
"Ruins? This place is the furthest thing from a ruin right now." He muttered, pocketing the note Kyoko had left for him.

Pushing open the big wooden doors, he entered into the Annex. The inside was completely dark, he couldn't see a thing.

"Kyoko? Where are you?" He squinted through the dark, but he could just about make out a door at the other end of the room. Walking towards it, he realised that he could see a light coming from underneath it. The way the light moved, he guess it must have been a candle, or a lantern.

"Here goes..." He pushed open the next set of doors. His ninja senses were tingling. He didn't like this one bit. Something was niggling at the back of his mind, but he couldn't figure out what.  
As he opened the door, he found out he had guessed right. The walls were lined with lanterns. They produced just about enough light to faintly illuminate the room, giving it a slight orange glow. It wasn't enough light to see the figure at the end of the room clearly.

"Is that...?"

************

"He's entered. Let's go in."

"All at the same time. Go." Three shadows jumped in front of the entrance to the Annex. Swiftly entering through the entrance door, they crept in the shadows, making no sound.  
Reaching the second set of doors, the shadow in the lead signalled for the others to stop.

The two other shadows positioned themselves either side of the door. "Now we wait." It was very faint, barely recognisable as Sasuke Uchiha. The two shadows nodded as Sasuke drew his long sword, keeping it ready.

************

"I see you've finally come." He could hear Kyoko's voice. Soft, and it sounded like she was enjoying herself.

"What is it you wanted to talk about?" Naruto began walking towards her, trying to focus on her figure.

Kyoko nodded and looked up at him, her red eyes very faintly glowing with traces of red chakra. "It's time I told you a little secret I've been hiding." Red chakra began forming around her body. Naruto could see it building up, surprising him.

"Red chakra!?" He stopped. Only he could use red chakra. Being a jinchuuriki host, it came as part of the job description.

"That's right Naruto. Red chakra." Kyoko's pupils in her eyes had turned into slits. The three whisker-shaped scars on her cheeks began darkening.

"But that's not possible. How can that be possible!" He staggered backwards, overwhelmed by what he was seeing.

"It is possible Naruto. It's very possible. And because of one simple reason." Kyoko's eyes narrowed. "In this world, we're the same. I am you, and you are me. Jinchuuriki hosts for a pair of terrible demons. Just as you have the powers of the Nine-tailed Fox sealed inside of you, I too also have the power of the almighty Kyuubi sealed inside of me." She grinned, a freakishly devilish grin.

"How the hell can there be two Nine-tailed Foxes!" Naruto yelled. He was beginning to seriously freak out.

Kyoko was still grinning madly, almost as if she was possessed. "It a link to our past Naruto. Don't you remember? I've been a part of you ever since you were a small child. We grew up together, we shared so many memories together." Her face softened. "We were together every day. Until the day we got separated."

"Sent as far away as I could, into a deep, dark place that nobody knew existed. Locked in confinement, with only distant memories to cling on to." She looked at Naruto, still smiling, but with tears in her eyes. "That was two years ago."

The tears began rolling down her face, patting on the soft wood of the floor.

"Two years of darkness!" She screamed. "Two years locked up in a cage, shut off from everything. Alone, cold and nothing was around for comfort."

"Except you."

Naruto was so confused, he had no idea what was going on. "Except me?"

"With a part of the Kyuubi inside of me, I could feel your presence. When I fell asleep at nights, I could watch your memories, watch how you lived, fought and almost died for the Hidden Leaf Village. It was the only solace I had."

She choked. "It's like watching your best friend go through hell. Desperately wanting to help them, but only being able to sit back and watch."

"Kyoko..." Naruto began walking towards her, wanting to comfort her.

As soon as he was about three steps away from her, the door behind him burst open.

"Don't Naruto, stay away from her!" Sasuke's voice ripped through the still air. Behind him stood Hinata and Sakura, kunai drawn. Hinata had an activated Byakugan, whilst Sakura had chakra glowing around her feet and hands.  
And as for Sasuke, his sword was drawn. He was pointing it at Kyoko.

"What are you doing!?" Naruto yelled. They were going to attack Kyoko.

Suddenly, he felt himself lifted into the air. He could hear Kyoko behind him squeal. Purple light surrounded him, making an electric crackling noise around Kyoko and him.

"We're too late Sasuke!" Sakura yelled.

Sasuke face was contorted in anger. "What have you done, Kyoko!" Brandishing his sword against the purple light, it failed to have any effect. The light just conducted through his sword and electrocuted him. He was thrown onto the floor, slightly singed.

"Sasuke!" Sakura knelt next to him. "Are you okay?"

Sasuke nodded. He turned back to the purple light. "Naruto!"

Kyoko began to laugh. "Naruto's mine now. The magic power of the Annex has locked him and me together, forever." And with that, the purple light dragged the two away through another set of wooden doors. The doors slammed behind them, and they all heard a distinct locking noise, followed by the grinding of gears.

"Naruto!" Sasuke, Sakura and Hinata screamed after him. But it was too late. He was already gone.

************

"What are we going to do, Sasuke?" Sakura asked her leader worriedly. Sasuke wore an expression of determination. "We're going to gather everyone from the Hinata Apartments. And we're going to go and rescue Naruto." He looked at them both. Hinata was staring back into his Sharingan-activated eye with equal determination.

"That was the mission given to us, wasn't it?"

* * *

As some of you are probably thinking, the story is drawing to a close.

But it still has a ways to go yet. This chapter marks the beginning of the end.


	8. Hearts Grow

Hello, my faithful readers ^^  
I know that I mentioned at the end of the last chapter that this might be the beginning of the end to Promise, but I may actually have to rescind that statement.  
I've completely changed the plan to this story, and as you'll find out, it's going to add a bit more depth to the story as a whole. I hope you enjoy it.

Oh, and I hope that most of you are away of by now, but this story is slightly AU. You'll figure it out if you haven't by the end of this chapter.  
Enjoy, and reviews are gratefully appreciated. ^^

* * *

'Promise'

Chapter 8: Hearts Grow

The outside of the Annex was deceiving. The Annex was long, it was wide and it was very tall.

Running through countless rooms, Sakura had lost count of the doorways and sliding panels she's run through. It felt like she had been running in a circle, with each room looking exactly like the one they had just passed. Wooden gears had jammed some of the sliding doors shut, but they hadn't been much of a challenge to the three ninja.

But the labyrinth of doors and staircases had confused her.

"You think we're lost?"

"No, we're not lost." Sasuke suddenly came to a halt. He didn't sound worried. Surprisingly, he sounded cheerful.

"Then where the hell are we!?" Sakura wasn't a girl gifted with a large reserve of patience. Granted she had a bit more than Naruto, but just a little bit.

"We're in a genjutsu." Hinata spoke up, her Byakugan activated. Looking around the house, her eyes were fixated on an object above her. "He's at the top of the building, and he seems to be tied down with something..." Hinata said quietly. "I can see Kyoko, she's talking with him."

Seeing Naruto taken away by the purple magic, with Kyoko cackling like a demon in heat, had left her extremely annoyed. Kyoko in general, just completely annoyed her. The demon girl was the whole reason they were here.

The whole reason they were on this mission in the first place.

************

"Sakura." Sasuke Uchiha had just appeared out of nowhere, right in front of her. Shopping for a new set of kunai, she was surprised to see her former team mate. He didn't normally shop when there was a lot of people around. And the streets of Konoha were practically packed at this point.

Technically speaking, right now, Sasuke should have been in training with Kakashi-sensei. Ever since Naruto had somehow managed to bring back the corrupted Uchiha from the Valley of the End, he had been assigned to Kakashi as a special student who needed the kind of training expected for an ANBU Black Op team.

Kakashi had sworn to make sure that Sasuke had no intentions of wandering off to Orochimaru. But he didn't need to worry.  
What had happened between Naruto and Sasuke was a cardinal secret. The only ones who actually knew what happened were Sasuke and Naruto themselves. They never spoke about it, and probably never would.

Naruto hadn't even told Sakura.  
Both of the ninja had woken up from unconsciousness in the Leaf Village Hospital. Sakura had been there the whole time, waiting for them to awaken.  
When they finally did, she had been the happiest she had ever been.

But when they did awaken, they looked as though they had just survived a war. Emotion clouded their expressions and she hadn't been able to get a word out of them.  
When she had tried to hug them, she got the same reaction. Nothing. Just empty expressions.

They had both been discharged from the hospital a week later. Tsunade had told her that, even though they had healed physically, it would take them a lot longer to recover mentally. And in the meantime, it was up to Sakura to try and keep their spirits up.

She had agreed and told the Hokage she would try her best. She had no idea how hard it was trying to cheer up two ninja who both looked as though part of their heart had just been torn out and faded away.

When she asked the Hokage why they were so completely out of it, the Hokage had little to tell her.  
The only thing that Tsunade had managed to tell her was that it was a result of a bond being broken. 'The Broken Bonds of Friendship' she had called it.  
This meant that Sasuke and Naruto had probably tried completely annihilating each other. Killing each other.

She was shocked to learn that the energy from their fight was enough to destroy at least half of the Leaf Village. Witnessed by Kakashi before he had made it to the site of their fight, a huge blast of energy erupted from the Valley of the End.  
Although Tsunade hadn't told her what caused the blast, she was more worried about the idea that they had actually tried to kill each other. Two of her best friends.

Which was part of the reason Sasuke was now training with Kakashi. Firstly, and foremost, to give Sasuke the idea that he was getting exceptionally stronger, by giving him the training of an ANBU rank ninja. Secondly, so that Sasuke would understand the importance of what had occurred at the Valley of the End. And finally, so that he wouldn't leave the Leaf Village again, he was given only the most dangerous of missions.

Surprisingly, the Sasuke that Naruto had brought back from the Valley of the End wasn't the Sasuke she fell in love with. The Sasuke she had fallen in love was cool, was good at everything and would always help a comrade in a time of danger or distress.  
The Sasuke that was brought back was one who craved for power, had tried to kill his best friend and wanted nothing but revenge on his own brother. This Sasuke terrified her, and made her realize something.

Naruto had chased this Sasuke all the way to the Valley of the End. Not to kill him, but to bring him back. Bring him back at a selfish request made by a much younger and more naive version of what she was now. He had done it for her, and almost gotten himself killed because of it.  
And because of that, he was a special person in her life. Somebody who had almost sacrificed his own life to keep a promise.

And somebody who was in danger from the Akatsuki. The evil organisation, targeting and collecting Jinchuuriki hosts, or hosts of the Tailed Beasts.  
She promised herself she would never let the Akatsuki get their hands on him. Not while she still had breath in her body.

"Sakura?"

Realising she had completely spaced out in front of her former team mate, she shook her head and looked up.

"Yes?"

"The Hokage wants to see us. It's an emergency, and Naruto's in danger."

"Naruto!?" She instantly feared the Akatsuki. Or maybe he'd run off after something, like Sasuke had done. She quickly followed Sasuke to the hospital, praying that Naruto was alright.

She hadn't expected to see Naruto unconscious, red chakra swirling around his body, lying on a bed with various instruments being fed into his body. His was in a deep sleep, and the scars on his face had become more pronounced. Just like the times when his eyes glow red and he suddenly gets a whole lot stronger.

The Hokage was there, along with Hinata. The Hokage wore a grim expression on her face, while Hinata looked like she had been crying.  
She didn't like the atmosphere around her. Something was extremely wrong with Naruto.

"As you can see, something's wrong with Naruto." The Hokage cleared her throat. This was going to take a lot of explaining.

"First of all, I want to ask you both something." She looked at both Sakura and Sasuke, wearing a serious expression. "How well do you know Naruto?"

The two ninja looked at each other. It was the first time she had ever seen Sasuke look genuinely confused. What kind of question was that?

"I'm asking because Naruto's hiding a deep secret, which the Third Hokage made the village promise not to tell. At least, not to the younger generation of ninja like yourselves." Tsunade sighed. "That old man Sarutobi. He didn't explain how hard this was going to actually be. And he sure never mentioned about anything like this."

She looked at the two ninja again. "Inside of Naruto, lies a demon. A terrible beast, once feared by the villagers of the Leaf. It was called the Nine-tailed fox, Kyuubi. The same beast that once attacked the village a long time ago."  
"Sealed by the Fourth Hokage, that demon now sleeps within a seal inside Naruto's belly. Naruto houses one of the strongest powers ever known to ninja."

"However, this power is unstable. I'm sure you've both witnessed times where Naruto's become almost infinitely stronger, without any kind of warning."

Sasuke and Sakura both nodded. Both of the ninja had experienced times of Naruto's terrifying power.

"For some strange reason, this strange power has now turned against Naruto himself. The red chakra that surrounds him has got Naruto locked inside a powerful genjutsu, locking him into a deep sleep. A sleep where we can't retrieve him from." Tsunade looked at all three of them, including Hinata.

"This is where we need you to step in. We need you three to enter this powerful genjutsu and destroy its source. Judging from the size of the genjutsu, the Kyuubi has created a whole new world inside Naruto's mind. It may take you a while to find the source, but we need to destroy it without alerting the Kyuubi. Otherwise, the beast might destroy all of you."

The three ninja stood to attention. None of them wanted to die inside Naruto's mind.

Tsunade turned her attention back to the sleeping form of Naruto.

"The genjutsu itself hasn't actually finished its preparation yet. It's still activating, and judging from the size of the chakra needed, it will need a while to finish."

She looked back at the three ninja. "This is the most important bit. Once you're inside, you must adapt to your surroundings. And once you are inside, there are some things that even Naruto cannot know. Being caught inside a genjutsu, the human mind is already strained at its full capacity. The addition of you three will lighten the load on Naruto's mind, but this beast inside is spinning a web of deceit to keep Naruto in the dark. Don't reveal you are ninja until the last minute. You must catch the Kyuubi completely unaware. Even if that means lying to Naruto."

She looked over at Sasuke. "Your mission is slightly different. You must keep an eye on Naruto and recon the situation to the best of your ability. Using chakra is not a good idea, it might alert the Kyuubi. So try and stay away from situations where using chakra is necessary until you need to defeat the Kyuubi. As soon as you think you've gathered enough information, you must regroup with the other members of the team, after which you will become team leader."

"What!?" Sakura suddenly burst out. "Sasuke is the team leader?"

"Do you have a problem with that, Sakura?" Her sudden outburst had caught Tsunade's attention. The Hokage was sensing something was wrong with the young kunoichi.

"No, I'm sorry for that" Sakura lied. She bowed her head respectfully.

The Hokage nodded slowly. "Well, if there's no more interruptions, we'll begin the mission immediately." Guiding them to the beds they were going to sleep on while inside Naruto's mind, Sakura looked at Naruto's unconscious form in the bed next to her. It was hard to believe that the ninja was fighting a battle inside his own mind. Her best friend was in trouble, and she was going to save him.

"I'm coming Naruto." She slowly closed her eyes, and drifted into unconsciousness.

************

Waking up, she found herself on the ground. The sky above her looked strange. It was like pieces of it were missing altogether.

"This world hasn't finished creating itself yet." Sasuke's voice was next to her. Sitting cross-legged on the ground, was looking at her. "The Kyuubi hasn't finished yet." He looked up at the sky.

"Sakura, what happened back there. Did you not want me to be team leader?"

She sat up, thinking over what he'd just said.

"It's not that you wouldn't make a good leader Sasuke. It's just, after everything that's happened between you and Naruto, I'm not sure about you anymore." She wore a look of determination. Sasuke's eyes fell from the sky and rested on Sakura's emerald ones.

"I heard about what happened between you and him at the battle. At the Valley of the End." She said quietly. "You tried to kill him. You tried murdering your best friend, who was only trying to bring you home. Trying to bring you back to me." A small tear began forming at the corner of her eye.

"I made him make a promise to me. A promise to bring you back. A promise that almost got him killed!" She was angry. She wasn't sure if it was at Sasuke, or herself.  
"When I saw him lying in that hospital bed, covered in about a million cuts and bruises, it hit me how close I'd come to losing him. And then you were next to him, looking as though you'd been through the wringer as badly as he had."  
"And then the Hokage told me. You guys had tried to kill each other. It was terrible, knowing how two of my best friends were actually that close to dying."

Her anger had grown. Her face was contorted in fury, with tears streaming down her cheeks. "If you hadn't gone off after Orochimaru, none of that would have happened! The both of you looked as though you had killed each other afterwards! You were both a pair of emotionless zombies!"

"That was three years ago Sakura."

It as the first time he had talked through her whole speech. The look in his eyes looked genuinely sad.

"I'm not proud of what I did. I'll admit I did try to kill Naruto. And going after Orochimaru, it was for power. I yearned for the kind of power that would help me destroy Itachi. My own brother and long hated enemy.  
If it wasn't for Naruto, I'd probably still be on that same, dark path. So I owe him a lot." His eyes darkened. "He's my best friend. I'm not letting his monster pet destroy his mind."

A moment of silence passed between them. She realised that Sasuke's past was catching up with him, and he hated himself for it. He was here to rescue Naruto, not to kill him.

"I guess, you've changed Sasuke."

He nodded. "And its all because of that knuckle headed ninja we all know and love." He smiled silently.

Sakura nodded, smiling at him. She realised that things would never be the same between them. But she preferred it that way. Her feelings for Sasuke had pretty much vanished after what had happened. But after hearing the sentimentality he had just displayed, she was certain he was a good person. A good ninja.

"I guess, you can be a leader then."

He smiled again. "I'll try my best. I'll look after my squad as best I can."

Another moment of silence passed between them as they waited for Hinata to wake up.  
"Tell me something." Sasuke's eyes softened for a moment.

"What is it?"

"Do you like him?" Sasuke asked.

"He's my friend, of course I like him." For a moment, Sakura looked away.

"You know what I mean, Sakura."

She didn't reply. She wasn't sure. Part of her had grown really attached to the blond-haired ninja. To the point where he couldn't stop thinking about him, especially now that they were older.

When Naruto had disappeared with Jiraiya for two years of training, her life had felt really empty. And she still felt extremely guilty for what had happened to him.  
But as soon as he came back, she was amazed at how much he matured. How much of him had changed.  
And at how the void that she had failed to fill in her life had been filled. It must have been around about then that she realised it was because of Naruto not being in the village for two whole years. Which was about the same time she had realised she had fallen in love with him.

She knew one thing for sure. He certainly made her feel a lot hotter under the collar than Sasuke had ever done.

Sasuke smiled and looked over at the slowly forming village about 500 meters in front of him. "You better not say anything to Hinata."

Sakura smiled. She didn't want the Hyuuga heiress as a rival for Naruto's affections. But she wasn't going to let a challenge stop her either.

"I won't say anything if you don't."

************

The Hyuuga heiress was lying on her side, with her eyes slightly open, her back facing the two ninja. She had a determined expression on her face. She was not letting Sakura take Naruto away from her. Not ever.

* * *

Could this mean future conflict? And what's Kyoko going to do with Naruto?  
I've just decided on a new ending for this, and its going to be awesome! ^^

Review and review and review people.


	9. The Broken Bond

'Promise'

Chapter 9: The Broken Bond.

"So we're in a genjutsu..." Sakura pouted. "And obviously, this is her stinking genjutsu, so we're not getting out of it with a normal genjutsu release." She growled, staring at the ceiling.  
Her anger was starting to build.

Sasuke was still vaguely smiling. "Hinata, what do you see around us?"

The Hyuuga heir drew her eyes away from the ceiling, and started scanning the area around them. "What you would normally see in a genjutsu. Hazy chakra all around us, although its red instead of blue. And apart from Naruto and Kyoko a few floors up, everything looks like it stretches for miles in every direction."

"So blocked in, and with no way out." Sasuke chuckled.

Sakura was beginning to get really annoyed. Not only she could she not go and help Naruto and punch Kyoko in the face, she was trapped with a chuckling Uchiha.

"What the hell is so funny!?" She yelled at him, even though she was standing right next to him. "We're trapped, god knows what kinky things Kyoko's doing to Naruto up there and you're laughing!"

At Sakura's words, Hinata looked up with her Byakugan-activated eyes and kept a watchful eye on the her love and his captive. "They better not being doing anything up there..." She murmured silently to herself.

"What's so funny Sakura, is that you haven't noticed what's going on yet." Sasuke sat down on the floor, leaning back and laying down. Sakura slowly began taking deep breaths. Her temper was beginning to give.  
"Fine then, genius. What is going on?" She snarled, her hands balling into fists.

"We're in Love Hina."

Both Sakura and Sasuke turned to Hinata, who looked surprised for some reason. Sakura wore an expression of complete confusion, whilst Sasuke smiled.

"Well done Hinata. We're in Love Hina. Or..." He looked back at Sakura. "We're following it's story."

"Following it's story?" She still didn't quite follow. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Sasuke sat up, this time looking serious. "It means, we're going through Love Hina, just like the characters from the original story did. I don't think we will go through every aspect of the story. Just the major plot points."

"When you look back at the time we've spent in this world already, we've been through a few of the key events in the story. For example, Sakura getting jealous of Kyoko fawning over Naruto and dunking her face into hot sauce. Okay, sure Naru never dunked Mutsumi's face in hot sauce, but I'm sure Naru was jealous when Mutsumi did something weird with Keitaro."  
Sakura turned away, trying to hide her embarrassment. It had been yet another classic example of her losing her temper and doing something outrageous.

"I was not fawning over Naruto... I was just..."

"Sasuke, have you read Love Hina? I mean, the whole thing?" Hinata asked timidly, interrupting Sakura. She used to think Sasuke was the kind of guy who was too manly for Love Hina. Now she wasn't sure what to think anymore. What happened to the old, brooding Sasuke who never seemed to smile?

Coughing in an attempt to hide his embarrassment, he started talking again. "As you can probably recognise, we're in the Annex scene. Where Naru had to try and fight her way through the Annex to rescue Keitaro from Kanako. However, the magic power of the Annex threw just about everything it had to stop Naru. Even her friends from the apartments tried to stop her, as the Annex did something to their minds. It took Naru, Keitaro and finally even Kanako to go against the power of the Annex for it to finally be over."

"He really has read the whole thing..." Both Sakura and Hinata thought, worried that it had mentally damaged him.

"So what does that mean?" Sakura asked. "What do we have to do!?"

"It means we have to leave our fates to Naruto, one of the girls that he cares about and Kyoko, or as we like to call her back home, the Kyuubi." Sasuke looked away. "We can't go against the power of the Annex, it's too strong. We need Naruto to free us from this one."

"What!?" Sakura blanched. "We can't do anything from here!?"

Before Sasuke could give a reply, Hinata interrupted them. By whimpering.  
With her Byakugan active, she was staring through the ceiling towards the upper floors, where Naruto and Kyoko were.

"Hinata? What's happening?" Sakura didn't like the reaction Hinata was giving from what she was looking at. "Hinata!?"

"Naruto's still tied up. And Kyoko's k-kissing him..."

"Uh oh..." Sasuke glanced at the ceiling too, even though he couldn't see through it. He was more worried about the two girls reactions. "um, don't..."

"I'm going to kill her!" Sakura screamed, glowing with bright blue chakra. The killer intent coming from her was beginning to scare him, even though he wasn't a stranger to strong levels of chakra.

"Sakura! You're going to kill us!" Sasuke stood up, standing in a defensive stance.

But she couldn't hear him. Her eyes were reflecting the blue light from her energy, and all she could hear was the roar of chakra in her ears.

*******

_[Three days earlier]_

Tiptoeing from her bedroom, Sakura moved silently down the hall. The rising sun was poking throughout the apartments, giving the halls a faded orange colour.

Stealthily sneaking past Shinobu's room, she stopped when she got outside Naruto's room. It was strange, but her heart was beating really fast, and it felt like it was ready to burst right out of her chest. She hadn't felt this nervous in a very, very long time.

Sliding the door open, she saw Naruto resting peacefully on his futon. He wasn't wearing a shirt, so she could see all of the contours and muscles of his well-developed chest. It didn't do much to help with her already thumping heart, and the rage of the butterfly's in her stomach.

Moving forward, she kept the noise she made to a minimum. She was by Naruto's side in no time.  
She could hear him breathing, she watched his chest rise and fall with each breath. Looking at his face, she was surprised at how peaceful he looked. The ninja was always on the move, never slowing down for a second. She never saw him look so peaceful when he was conscious.

"Oh Naruto..." She sighed.

She didn't know why. But she really wanted to get into the futon and snuggle up next to him. Apart from being close to him, she'd love to see the surprise on his face when he woke up. He would probably panic, and think he'd done all sorts of things with her. Her innermost consciousness giggled. She was really mean sometimes.

Suddenly, an even better idea came to her. She needed to wake him up anyway, and this would be way better than simply slipping into his futon.  
It would be even easier to do, seeing as she was only wearing a shirt and some cotton panties.

Slipping her leg over his body, she straddled his torso and put her hands on his chest.

"Wake up, sleepyhead!"

She deliberately made her voice high and as cheerful sounding as possible. It served to grind him into consciousness, causing him to grab his pillow and stick his head underneath it, mumbling about insensitive woman.

Smiling at her success so far, she lightly slapped him on the chest.

"Come on, get up!" She tried to inject some immaturity into her voice. Realising that he was stubborn enough to sleep through it, she grabbed his pillow and threw it across the room. The morning sun hit him square in the face and he began rubbing his eyes in irritation.

"Kyoko, come on, another five minutes, seriously..." He growled, his blue eyes starting to show underneath his tired eyelids. He tried to turn around and sleep on his front, crossing his arms and promptly began snoozing on them. A moment later, he looked up at the balcony, a surprised look in his eyes.

Rocking forward and backwards slowly on his back, she said happily. "Kyoko isn't awake yet dummy. That's another thing you two seem to have in common. You can both sleep through the chaos in this place."  
"Well, they are connected, in a way..." She thought slowly. "I guess some of Naruto's personality traits must have rubbed off onto her..."

Looking back down at him, she noticed he was still in a state of tired confusion. Growling in mock frustration, she began softly hitting his back with her fists. "Come on! You are so lazy!! You'd sleep for a month if I didn't make the effort to come in here and drag you out of bed."

Underneath her, he seemed to have finally woken up. Or at least he was awake enough to provide a sarcastic response. "I wouldn't exactly call this dragging me out of bed Sakura. It seems more like you want to keep me in it."

Her chance had arrived. Seizing it with both hands, she tried to inject as much sensuality as she could into her voice.

"Maybe I do."

She felt his entire body tense underneath her. Her internal self was loving his reaction, and she was getting more and more excited by the way her attention was making him react.  
Deciding to step things up a notch, she shifted her weight and moved her body so that she was now lying on top of him, her arms over his, with her chin leaning on his shoulder, making sure that he could feel her rapid breathing, right on his neck.

"We can't let Kyoko keep you all to herself now, can we Naruto?" She whispered softly into his ear. She could still feel all of Naruto's muscles tense. It was like he was in a state of panic or something. Grinning softly, she let her head drop on the futon next to him, just so that she could look into his face. He turned around to look at her, their faces inches apart.  
Even though this was what she had planned, she still felt slightly nervous when he was so close. She was very tempted in just screwing the plan and giving him a kiss straight away.  
But she still wanted just a little bit more fun with him first.

She watched as his face slowly began to blush redder and redder. She giggled.  
"It seems like somebody's enjoying themselves."

She slowly began rubbing her leg up and down his leg. His face blushed even harder as his hormones went into a frenzy.  
While she was doing this, she moved closer to him and whispered into his ear.

"Kyoko and me. We're the same.  
We both like you Naruto.  
Sadly though, we both can't have you for ourselves."

She stopped moving and looked at him, straight in the eyes. She smiled softly. "Sooner or later, you're going to have to choose. And not just out of Kyoko and me either."  
Hinata suddenly flew into her thoughts, reminding her how hard it was going to be to keep him all to herself.

His bright blue eyes looked so confused. And slightly panicked. Internally, she tried not to giggle at him. It was a serious moment. She didn't want to spoil it.  
She moved closer to him. Close enough to feel his short- rapid breathing. Close enough so that he could feel her nose rubbing softly against his.

Her heartbeat was running a marathon. And she was sure her face looked as red as a tomato.

"Naruto..." She said softly. She closed her eyes and leant forward, gently kissing him.

"I love you."

She leant in for another kiss, cupping his face with her hand.  
She felt lighter than air, and suddenly realised her inner self had shut up completely.

Breaking apart softly, she noticed how he looked, almost disappointed it was over. Smiling softly, she slowly stood up off of him.

"Sakura..." He had sat up in his futon. With a giggle, she realised he was pretty much awake now. Plan successful.

"I'm not letting Kyoko take you away from me." Turning around to face him, she smiled. "Believe it." She winked and cheekily stuck her tongue out at him, surprising him with his own catchphrase.  
Walking over to his door, she slid it open and peeked outside. She couldn't see anybody, so she turned around to face him.

"Breakfast is ready, so get up, get dressed, and get your butt downstairs." She blew him a kiss and left his room, her mind in a complete frenzy. Giggling to herself the whole way downstairs, she wondered how long it would be before he managed to make it downstairs.

*******

As soon as the hallway was clear, a shadow moved away from the hidden crevice it had been hiding in.  
Hinata stepped into the light, her Byakugan activated, as well as a look of fury spread across her face.

"You're right Sakura. It's not just you and Kyoko he's going to choose between. He's got me too." She clenched her hands into fists. "I'm not letting you take him away from me either."

Turning the opposite way to where Sakura had gone, she began making her way downstairs, aware that she was going to have to control her temper over breakfast. Not like she had a temper to begin with. This was just her having a bad day.

*******

Breakfast had been a disaster. Not only had she dunked the target's face into hot chilli sauce, she had almost punched the freaking Kyuubi in the face!  
Naruto had tried protecting her, which made her feel about ten times worse, and to add insult to the injury, Hinata's little speech had left her completely depressed.

Talking to Kyoko afterwards had been easier, and a lot less frightening than she had actually expected.  
She had expected the wrath of the Nine-Tailed Fox. She hadn't expected a sob story, and about an hour's worth of hugs from her.  
What's worse, she never expected Hinata and Shinobu and Su to join her in the room, make amends with each other, and then create some mad fan club for Naruto.

Which had to be the stupidest idea ever. Not only did it make her feel about five years old, it wasn't going to work anyway.  
She was sure that everyone else in the room had been thinking the same thing when they agreed to share Naruto, until he actually made a decision on who he cared for the most.

_There's no way in hell I'm sharing Naruto!!_

Well, that's how she had felt anyway.

It had been a couple of hours, but Sasuke had come to visit her after what had happened. He hadn't been angry, which was a surprise to her, seeing as how she had almost failed the mission.  
He had come to explain to her that the mission's progress was moving forward quickly, and that it was only a matter of time before their plan would come into action. He also had the nerve to make a smart-ass comment about what had happened earlier, something about her temper getting worse with age. But he said he didn't mean it after she had threatened to beat him up.

He was turning more and more into Kakashi-sensei lately. She wouldn't have been surprised if he read those stupid books Jiraiya wrote.

No. What was troubling her more than anything at the moment, was Hinata.  
She could just tell that Hinata had about as much intention to keeping to the fan clubs promise as she did.  
Which only meant a lot of trouble for her in the future.

*******

She didn't understand.

Looking at herself in the mirror on the wall of her bedroom, Hinata watched herself as tears rolled down her face.  
She didn't understand. She thought Sakura and Naruto would, at best, be best friends.

She thought that, after what had happened between Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto, love wouldn't have come as easily as it had.  
She had always known that Naruto had always had a huge crush on Sakura since the Academy days. Those were the days where she lived in hope that Naruto would be hers forever and ever. That nobody except her actually cared enough about Naruto to actually like him.

Growing into a teenager had quite suddenly hit that dream firmly on the head. Especially after Sasuke's disappearance and subsequent return to the Leaf Village. Everyone's opinion on Sasuke had changed as soon as he returned. Branded a traitor by some of the harsher villagers, his former team mates, the people who had actually known him had accepted him back, although they were wary of him.

The worst was Sakura. The first day he was brought back, she had been overjoyed to see him.  
However, only around a week later, something had changed. She wouldn't talk to anyone. She seemed depressed, or sorrowful. Like as though a part of her had died.

That was when she noticed. Noticed that the feelings for Sasuke weren't there anymore. Almost as if she had learned a terrible secret about him.  
Which was roughly around the time Naruto and Sakura had started hanging out together more.

But even Naruto had matured, and wasn't constantly asking Sakura out on dates. Something that neither Sakura or Hinata had failed to pick up on.  
Sakura was worried that he didn't like her anymore, that she'd been too harsh over the years, or that he might have fallen for some other girl while he had been off with Jiraiya.  
Hinata was worried that he just didn't like anyone anymore. Or that he might've fallen for some other girl while he'd been off with Jiraiya.

Either way, Jiraiya wasn't in either of the girl's good books at the moment.

Wiping the tears away from her eyes, she had decided.  
Decided to confront Sakura about her feelings directly, and show her how she felt.  
And then, they would confront Naruto. It was all down to him.

*******

The sky had turned a ruby red. The stars had already begun to pop out, making the twilight sky look beautiful.  
Just like the night Kyoko had arrived.

Sitting on the roof, watching the sun slowly sink below the horizon, a certain pink-haired kunoichi was all alone, left only with the thoughts of a certain, blond ninja.  
Her eyes were reflecting red from the dying sun, her head was leaning on one of her arms, which was leaning on one of her knees, whilst the other dangled limply from the roof.

She was so wrapped up in her own world, she didn't hear somebody come up from behind her.

"Sakura."

Without turning around, she answered the girl behind her lifelessly.

"What is it, Hinata?"

The other kunoichi sat down beside her. After a few moments of silence, Hinata spoke up.

"We have to talk Sakura. About Naruto."

Sakura didn't say anything. She could already guess what Hinata wanted to tell her.  
Taking her silence as a sign that she could continue, Hinata carried on.

"We... we both know we like Naruto. And, I realise that whoever he picks in the end... is his choice. I'll be happy that he's happy.  
But until then, we have to wait and see..."

"So what's your point?" Sakura muttered.

"Well..." Hinata watched as the sun finally disappeared over the horizon. She looked sad, as though something painful was going to happen.

"For years now, Naruto's been a big part of my life. Without him, I wouldn't have survived half of the experiences that I've had. And I'm sure that, seeing as he was your team member, you could probably say the same thing. Right?"

Thinking back to the tough times that they had gone through together, Sakura nodded silently. Without Naruto, she could think of numerous occasions where she wouldn't have survived._  
_Seeing her nod, Hinata carried on.

"But its not only in battle that I've needed Naruto. There's never been a dull day in my life that I can remember with Naruto in it. Not one of those days I've shared with Naruto have ever been boring."

Somehow, she found herself nodding to everything Hinata was saying. Life without the knuckleheaded ninja was too hard to imagine.

"He made me feel special, and he made me feel stronger, and he made me more confident in myself." Hinata sighed. "And I think that, if I ever lost that part of my life, I wouldn't know what to do..."

Subconsciously, Sakura was still agreeing with Hinata. They shared more in common than what she originally realised. At least, they did when it came to Naruto.

"But..." Hinata said softly. "If that's the case, then I can't let anyone take Naruto away from me."

"Not even you, Sakura."

Facing Hinata, Sakura looked shocked. Hinata wasn't normally this aggressive. Was she?

"But, Hinata..."

Hinata stood up. "The time will come when he will have to choose. Choose between you, me and..." Anger flashed in her eyes. "Her."

By 'her', Sakura assumed that she meant Kyoko. She wasn't letting Kyoko take Naruto away from her either. But what Hinata was saying was beginning to worry her. A lot.

"But until then Sakura, I'm not going to let you steal him away from me. Even if you are my friend." And with that, Hinata walked off the roof and into the Hinata Apartments.

Watching her walk away, Sakura didn't know what to think. This mission had gone way past 'just saving Naruto'. This mission was something personal for Hinata. And for her too.

"Hinata..."

*******

_[Present Day]_

"Sakura!!" Sasuke tried to yell over the roar of chakra that Sakura was letting off. But it was no good. Sakura couldn't hear him.  
He had to think of something, fast! Before Sakura did something drastic.

But before he could do anything, Sakura's chakra suddenly disappeared. Sakura herself had been flung from one end of the room to the other.  
Lifting herself up onto her arms, a small trickle of blood seeping from the corner of her mouth, she looked up to see Hinata, in her Gentle Fist stance.

Silence was all that could be heard for the next few moments, as Sakura and Sasuke both stared at Hinata. With anger in her eyes, she stood up straight from her Gentle Fist stance, staring hard back at Sakura.

"Hinata...why did...?" Sasuke looked between the two girls, sensing that he had missed something major between the two of them.

Sakura slowly stood up, vaguely aware that the chakra network inside her body was acting strange. Hinata's attack had messed up one of her chakra points.

"Hinata! What the hell?" Sakura yelled. She was beyond angry. This stupid rivalry for Naruto had gotten completely out of her hand. Wiping away the blood from her mouth, she clenched her fists.

"You weren't going to stop unless one of us did something." Hinata said quietly. "I'm sorry Sakura." Her expression softened. A small tear slid it's way down one of her cheeks.

Unclenching her fists, Sakura looked at the ground. Losing control like that, it was her fault to begin with.

"It's okay Hinata. I should be the one apologising."

Looking back and forth at the two girls, Sasuke was now convinced that this wouldn't be the last time something like this happened on their mission.

Hinata walked over to Sakura. "I'll sort out your chakra." She said miserably. Sakura nodded, allowing the kunoichi fix her chakra network. After a few moments, the fix was finished. Hinata looked at her, with a worried expression. "I'm really sorry Sakura."  
Giving her a hug, Sakura shook her head. "You've got nothing to apologise for, Hinata."

"Now, lets go get Naruto." She smiled.

As soon as they had separated from their hug, a loud explosion erupted from the ceiling above them. Wood splintered and the sound of heavy metal objects crashing through wood echoed all around them. A crack ripped through the wall next to them, and widened.

A staircase was behind the broken wall.

"Naruto!" The three of them yelled, running through the wall and up the staircase. The explosion must have been Kyoko. They had to save Naruto!

* * *

Now, sorry for the long wait for this one guys, I hope it was worth it ^^.

And also, I've got to address one issue here.  
The summary does say a Naruto/Shinobu pairing. Whilst that in the end, it might happen, that's not a definite thing yet.  
So it could be Shinobu. It could be Kyoko. It could be Hinata, Sakura, Naru, Motoko, point being, it could be anyone.

Have fun ^^


	10. The Melancholy of Sakura Haruno

'Promise'

Chapter 10: The Melancholy of Sakura Haruno

"Dammit, how many stairs are there?"

"Will you stop moaning Sakura! This is a house of magic tricks, its not going to make this easy for us."

"But...!"

"Shut up! I've had enough whining already."

The two bickering shinobi raced up the labyrinth of staircases and passage ways, whilst Hinata followed silently behind. The passageways were dark, the staircases were cold and the entire building smelt really, really old.

"I swear we went down that way a second ago..." Sakura peered down a familiar looking passage.

"But everywhere looks the same, how can you be so..."

"Guys, wait! That way!" Hinata pointed in the direction of a particular passage, her Byakugan active. The three shinobi ran as fast as they could, hoping that Naruto could just hold on for a little while longer.

*****

"So, how are you feeling, Naruto?"

"Quite good actually. Considering I'm naked from the waist up, strapped to a wall and not like totally needing the toilet anytime soon..."

"Attractive..."

"Yeah... So anyway, remind me again why I'm here?"

Kyoko smiled cheerfully at him. "It's to lure your friends in here."

"What are you going to do to them?"

The smile turned into a grin. "I'm not going to do anything. I'm going to sit back and watch the show."

"What do you mean?" Naruto glared at her. This just seemed like a huge, silly prank to him, which he wouldn't have minded as much if he wasn't being used as the bait.

"You'll see when they get here."

*****

"How much further Hinata?" Sasuke growled.

"Another two floors up... I think..." Hinata bit her lip. The Annex's structure was dynamic, so it never stayed as it was for long. Which was really annoying, as giving the rest of the squad directions was next to impossible.

"We'll be there soon..." He turned back to look at Sakura. She had gone quiet in the last ten minutes. Her moaning had completely died down, which was a relief. But she looked lost in thought.

And a Sakura lost in thought was usually a thing to be feared. But thinking about it, he remembered a time where it was just him playing on her mind, constantly. According to the stories Naruto had told him since he had returned to Konoha, Sakura was desperate to see him again, even training to get stronger just to see him again.

However, being the arrogant bastard he had once been, he had lost pretty much everything precious to him. Including Sakura.

But recently, he had been happy. He had his friends back, he had his life on track and more importantly, he was on a mission to save his closest friend from a feared demon, or a beautiful girl, depending on which one suited the occasion.

Finally stopping to catch their breath, Hinata spoke up. "This is it. This is where we get to Kyoko, and Naruto." She was looking at a wall that looked just the same as every other wall in the Annex. Using her gentle fist, Hinata broke through the wall at three specific points, revealing a hidden staircase behind it.

"Finally." Sakura walked through the remains of the wall. They had been running around the annex for a few hours, trying to find the entrance. Behind her Sasuke and Hinata followed cautiously.

The stairway was old, creaked a lot and had cracks running through the sides. Nobody had used it in a long time. Walking slowly up the stairs, Sakura had a kunai out and ready, in case a random trap activated. The atmosphere was spooky, but nothing appeared to hinder them in their path.

They reached the top, where a single door greeted them. Sakura put her hand on the handle and placed her ear to the door. She could hear Naruto complaining very faintly, and Kyoko talking to him.

"This is it guys." She whispered. She turned the handle, and pushed the door open.

Naruto was tied up, but still able to talk, whilst Kyoko smiled at them cheerfully.

"It's about time you guys showed up!" Naruto growled. "Can somebody please explain to me what this is all about!?"

"This genjutsu, it's all her doing!" Sakura pointed at Kyoko.

"I already know that. She said she wants to keep me here forever, that's why she's doing it." Naruto glared at Kyoko. "But then she said something else is going on. Something I'll have to bear witness to."

"Something else?" Sasuke looked at Sakura, and Hinata.

Kyoko smiled. "I think one person here seems to have figured it out. Isn't that right, Sasuke?" Sasuke nodded slowly, the realization of what was about to happen still hitting him.

"Sasuke, what is it!?" Sakura yelled at him.

"You're going to have to fight..." He said slowly.

"You're going to have to fight Kyoko., and you're going to have to fight Hinata."

A dark silence passed between everyone in the room. Naruto was looking between the three girls, confused. "Why?"

Sasuke looked slowly at him, his eyes wide. "You."

"They all fight over who gets you. Only then does the spell of the annex fade away. We're trapped Naruto, and the only way to get out is when one walks away alive."

Shock and panic spread all over his body like wildfire. They were going to fight, and kill each other over him! Hinata, Sakura and Kyoko. Only one of them would be able to leave this place alive.

"No!!" He screamed, struggling against his bonds, trying to get free. "Don't, there must be some other way!!"

"There isn't." Kyoko's smile had been replaced by a serious expression. "That's the magic of the annex. The 'Matchmaker's Lodge', where two people will be united forever." She looked over at him. "I'm sorry Naruto. I am the Kyuubi, and I've been with you since you were a little child. You know that by now. But the reason I pulled you into this genjutsu was simple. I fell in love with you, my host Jinchuuriki. You grew into a fine man after all the suffering that you've had since you were a born, and for all the good deeds and sacrifices you have made up until this point, I've shared them all with you, and I've been so happy to be able to have shared them with you." She looked up at Hinata and Sakura.

"However, two more share that same feeling of love for you. And the thought of losing you to one of them. It's a pain worse than death." She pulled out a kunai, and raised it in preparation. "I'll fight fair for your love, so I'll fight on their terms. But believe me, I won't lose." A fire raged in her eyes, intimidating Naruto.

She glanced quickly at Sasuke, who looked ready to draw his sword. "I can't have you getting in the way." Ropes materialized around him, and bound Sasuke tightly, tying him up next to Naruto.

"And now, we begin."

Sakura raised her kunai too, in anticipation for Kyoko's attack. "Hinata! Get ready."  
Hinata's response was a kunai aimed at her chest.

Dodging the kunai, Sakura screamed at her. "What the hell are you doing!?"

"Kyoko's got a point. This is a fight for Naruto." She drew another kunai and pointed it at Kyoko. "I've loved him for as long as I can remember. And right now, I've got a chance to be able to make him mine." Glaring at the two girls around him, she yelled. "Naruto Uzumaki, I love you. And I'm never letting anyone take you away from me."

And with the confession over, the fighting began.

Sakura was fighting mostly on the defensive. She didn't want to hurt Hinata. And Kyoko was so fast she didn't have time for much else anyway. Hinata already had blood dripping from her arm after an attack from Kyoko, but she was far from out of it. Seeing an opening, Sakura tried to give Kyoko a chakra-infused punch to the stomach. Hinata's gentle fist technique tapped her twice on the arm, halting the flow of chakra.

"Hinata!" She screamed again, trying to dodge the flurry of punches Hinata was trying to throw. She got tapped again on the thigh, causing her to fall on one knee. Kyoko's kunai was going to come down on her head. She brought her own kunai to meet it, barely being able to dodge it.

While this was going on, Naruto and Sasuke were desperately trying to break free from the ropes.

"Come on!!" Naruto growled, trying to break himself free. His fingers lightly tapped his kunai pouch, and he suddenly stopped struggling, trying to reach in for a kunai. Sasuke was trying to do the same. "Naruto, look out!" Sasuke suddenly shouted. A kunai whistled and landed in Naruto's arm. He screamed in pain, struggling against the ropes even more.

The fight raged on, whilst Naruto calmed down enough from the sudden attack. "If we don't hurry up and get out of here, they'll kill everyone in here." He growled. The kunai that landed on his arm was still jammed into his arm, but had weakened the ropes. Straining against them, the ropes around the kunai began to fray, until eventually they snapped open, freeing his right arm.  
Grabbing onto a kunai from his pouch, he quickly sliced himself out, and pulled the kunai from his arm. Slicing Sasuke open, they quickly turned round to intervene with the battle.

But it was already too late. All three of the girls were on the floor, bleeding from several, serious looking wounds.

"Why...?" Naruto kneeled down next to them. All three of them were still alive. Between them, Sasuke and Naruto tried bandaging the wounds.

"I'm not letting you kill each other. I don't want to lose a friend here." Naruto looked over all three of the girls. They were all looking up at him, breathing heavily from their fight.

"One way or another, we are all getting out of here! And then, we can all go home." As he spoke, the sounds of gears crunching somewhere within the annex could be heard.


	11. We Three Dreams

'Promise'

Chapter 11: We Three Dreams

"So they all survived?"

"All three girls have serious wounds, however they are alive and protected by the two male shinobi."

"Well that obviously didn't work, we'll have to think of another way. Shinobu, the Annex's magic is still active, right?"

"Yes. It only breaks if something happens to me or Naruto."

"Good. So for now, they're trapped inside the Annex?"

"Yes."

"We'll send you into the Annex. After all, they won't be able to touch you. Go in, and disrupt them in any way you can, whilst I get things ready for our final plan."

"Understood, Kanako."

* * *

The three girls were still in bad shape.

Kyoko's wounds were healing quickly, due to her Kyuubi powers. However, Hinata and Sakura didn't have the benefit of self-regeneration, so they had to make do with whatever first-aid Naruto and Sasuke could perform.

"Sasuke, chuck me the bandage."

"Here"

Naruto caught the bandage, and began wrapping it around Sakura's upper arm. He had managed to fix up most of her wounds, leaving her with only a few minor scratches left. With all three of the girls unconscious, it gave Sasuke and him time to figure out what their next move would be.

"Well now that these three have beaten the crap out of each other, what do we do now?" Naruto looked over at the bandaged bodies of the three girls. Even Kyoko had a band-aid above her right eye. A pretty one, with minuscule ninja on it.

"I honestly think we should tie them up, so they don't try to kill each other when they wake up."

"But we don't have any rope... And she could probably just burn her way out of it." Naruto nodded to Kyoko.

"If she wasn't a feared demon, she'd make a damn good ninja."

Both of them hung their heads and sighed. The situation wasn't getting any better, and still had the potential to get worse.

"Well, for now, we need a way to get out of this ridiculous Annex." Sasuke said. The Annex's magic was still in play, and there was an irritating griding noise echoing throughout the Annex.

"I thought it was the Kyuubi controlling it? Surely now that she's unconscious, the magic would fade?"

"That means there must be somebody else controlling the Annex. But who?"

Whilst they sat there and pondered on potential candidates, Hinata slowly began to wake up. Slowly opening her eyes and groaning in pain, she sat up and looked at the two boys.

"Naruto... Sasuke... Where are we?" She said sleepily.

"We're still in the annex Hinata." Naruto said, hoping she wasn't still in a bad mood.

"But what happened...?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Sasuke said, nodding a Naruto who nodded back. The events of the past hour would not be repeated.

"No, wait-"

As Hinata tried to get a word in, the door to the room they were currently in slowly creaked open. All three ninja instantly pulled out kunai and glared at the shadow walking through the door.

"N-Naruto...? Are you there?" It was Shinobu. She slowly wandered into the room, her eyes taking in all the kunai and blood splatter on the walls. "What h-happened?"

Naruto walked forward. "Nothing Shinobu. Just an accident. How did you get inside the Annex?"

But before he could get an answer, she burst into tears. She fell to her knees and hugged her shoulders, sobbing.

"I...I can't find any of them..." She cried. "Naru, Keitaro... Su, Kitsune, Motoko... They're all gone!"

Naruto knelt down beside her, pulling her into his arms. "It's okay Shinobu. You've got me, it's okay." He pulled her in to him tighter, as she sobbed into his jacket.

"Naruto!" Sasuke yelled at him.

"Get away from her, she's dangerous!" Hinata screamed at him, her Byakugan active.

"Wha-?" Naruto looked down at Shinobu, now clutched onto his jacket. She was glowing with a crimson aura, and her sobs had turned into soft giggles. The type you'd hear from a small girl in a horror film. He tried to get her off of him, but she held on tighter. Jumping forward, she pinned him to the ground, her eyes glowing an evil red and her mouth stretched wide in a horrific grin.

"_You're not going anywhere, Naruto Uzumaki._"

Without any kind of warning, she opened her mouth wide and bit into his neck.

"Naruto!" Both Sasuke and Hinata shouted out, rushing to get the girl off of their friend. But the crimson aura around Shinobu was painful to touch, it was making touching her impossible.

Naruto was screaming in pain as both the aura was hurting him and the whatever the bite was doing to him both inflicted pain on him. All Hinata and Sasuke could do was sit by and watch.

"I'm sorry, Naruto." Sasuke threw the kunai he had in his hand at Shinobu. With reflexes akin to a ninja, Shinobu managed to dodge it, jumping off Naruto's now unconscious body. Evil feminine laughter echoed throughout the room as Shinobu giggled where she stood.

"_You're all going to die here."_

Hinata rushed in, her Gentle Fist combat style thrusting in a punch to Shinobu's chest, who simply jumped away with inhuman reflexes.

_"You're never going to catch me when you're that slow."_

Sasuke unsheathed his sword and began to chase the demonic Shinobu. "What did you do to Naruto!" He yelled as he desperately tried to keep up with the constantly disappearing girl. Even with his Sharingan, keeping up with her was definitely a challenge.

"_Oh, nothing serious. He's just in a state of perpetual death. He's neither alive, nor is he dead right now. But my master will need him this way. The power he holds will turn this world into a reality, and finally, we will become one of the many worlds that live amongst the stars."_

She landed next to Naruto, and knelt next to his side.

"_I'll be taking my precious Naruto with me. The only ones that can break the spell of the annex is me, and him. If you ever want to leave here again, you're going to have to kill me, or him."_

And with that, both Naruto and the possessed Shinobu disappeared.

* * *

Thirty minutes had passed since then.

Hinata had been in tears, and Sasuke was desperately trying to think of a way of getting Naruto back.

It was then the other two girls finally decided to wake up.

Sakura was first, slowly drifting into consciousness. Her lime-green eyes slowly opened to the scene of blood on the walls. Sitting up slowly, she winced as her wounds began to sting.

"Slowly Sakura... You've only just woken up." Sasuke was on one knee, one hand on his sword. His entire body looked tense as he stared at the door. He looked as though he was ready to strike down anyone who came through the door.

Looking around the room, she saw Hinata scanning the area around them with her Byakugan. Her face looked moist, it looked like she had been crying recently.

Kyoko was on the ground not too far from her. She was unconscious, but her wounds were completely healed. Looking over her own body, she realized she had some patching up to do. But before that...

"Sasuke. Where's Naruto?" She had been aware that the blond ninja was no longer in the room, and everybody who was conscious seemed pretty tense. The two had to be connected somehow.

Sasuke's grip on his sword relaxed slightly as he turned his gaze to the ground. The atmosphere dropped a couple more notches below a painful silence. Hinata began to silently cry again, her fists curled into balls.

"Where's Naruto? Where is he?" She was panicking. Something had happened to him, it was obvious from their reaction. But neither of them would say.

"Tell me!"

"They took him Sakura." Sasuke's voice still had an electrified tension around it. It was like he was scared. "A demon took him away."

A moment of silence echoed around the room. To the rest of the occupants, Sakura's deathly quiet reaction was unnerving. After a few moments, she stood up, pulled out a kunai, and walked towards the door.

"No Sakura, don't! We don't know what's out there!" Sasuke stood abruptly, but his warning was cut off.

"I just beat one demon to get my hands on him. I'm going to kill whoever has taken him away from me this time." Sakura said in a low, menacing voice. Sasuke could feel the rage radiating from her, as she walked towards the door with an attitude that screamed she was about to kill an army, all by herself.


	12. Who will you Choose?

It's been ages readers! I'm sorry, time has been short for me, so fanfiction had to be prioritised to the backrow for a little while. But I'm back, fresh with imagination and new ideas. And here's chapter 12 of promise to the loyal fans ;)

* * *

'Promise'

Chapter 12:Who will you Choose?

Raging footsteps echoed off of the walls as Sakura pounded down the hallway. Naruto was constantly being taken away from her, and she couldn't stand it anymore. She didn't even know where she was going. She only had the blond ninja in her mind.

It felt just like the time Naruto and her had been looking for Sasuke, deep within one of Orochimaru's hideouts. Desperately searching every room, every corridor, anything that might give her a sign as to where he was.  
The Annex was a labyrinth of staircases, hallways, and rooms, all looking identical. Back before this all started, Keitaro and the other girls had said the Annex was big, but not anything like this. Somebody was directly manipulating the Annex. She had originally thought it was Kyoko, but now she was beginning to think somebody had wrested that control off of her.

As she made her way along another long hallway, she saw a shadow jump out in front of her. Waiting at the end of the corridor, Hinata was glaring at her. Right now, she wasn't really sure whether she should treat the fellow kunoichi with caution or not.

Hinata began walking towards her. The closer she came, the more Sakura began to realize that the two of them were fighting for the same thing. The look in Hinata's eyes said that she didn't want to fight. She just wanted to get Naruto back.  
Smiling grimly at the lavender-haired ninja, she slowly began walking towards her. Eventually they stopped right in front of each other.

"Sakura... I..." Hinata began.

"Hinata. Let's get him back. Together." Holding out her hand, Sakura smiled. Looking at the hand, and then slowly looking up at her, Hinata smiled back.

"Yes. Let's go get him."

_かぎ_

Sitting, cross-legged next to the unconscious form of Kyoko, Sasuke was slowly thinking up strategies. He needed a way of ensuring everyone was going to be able to fight an unknown foe without getting hurt.

After a while of pondering the situation, he heard Kyoko rustle. The crimson-haired beauty was beginning to stir, and after a few minutes, she woke up. Her eyes opened softly, looking around her. Her eyes caught Sasuke, and she immediately sat up.

"What are you...?"

"I'm here to keep an eye on you. The others are out looking for Naruto."

Kyoko looked around, but couldn't see any sign of Naruto or the other ninjas. "What happened to him?"

Sasuke's expression swiftly changed from neutral, to fiercely angry, and back to neutral again. "A demon took him."

Standing up faster than Sasuke thought possible in her condition, she was instantly angry. Walking towards the door, a fiery aura surrounded her as she started losing grip on her temper. Putting her hand on the door handle, she turned around a looked back at Sasuke.

"Well, you coming or what?" She reminded him of Naruto when he was angry. That must've been another trait that they shared in common. He smiled as he stood up. He almost felt sorry for the demon in charge now. Kyoko was well and truly pissed.

"I'm right behind you."

And with that, they both sped out of the room. Sasuke keeping an eye out for Sakura and Hinata, whilst Kyoko just steamrolled ahead. Anything that got in her way was going to be burnt with an inferno that could put hell to shame.

_つき_

Speeding around countless stairways, corridors and halls, Sakura and Hinata were following a single speck of chakra that seemed to be Naruto's flowing throughout the building. It didn't seem to be getting any closer, which was infuriating the pair of them.

"Dammit, how much further!" Sakura was beyond her limit now. They had been running for ages, and her patience had gone long ago.

"It keeps moving away! This annex is interfering with my Byakugan!" Hinata said through clenched teeth.

Sakura suddenly skidded to a halt. "Right, in that case, why don't we just go up? The chakra's coming from an upper floor, right?" She pumped her chakra into her fists, maybe a little too much chakra.

"Sakura, I don't think..."

There was an epic crash, as Sakura knelt down, and shot up, punching straight through the ceiling of the corridor that they had been walking in. Wood splintered everywhere, with dust billowing out in clouds. As soon as the dust settled, Hinata jumped through the hole, spotting Sakura running towards a single door at the end of the corridor. Behind the door, the glow of chakra was very strong.

Racing towards the door, Hinata tried to catch up with Sakura. With both ninja readied themselves at the sides of the door. Hinata held up three fingers, she could see three people in the room, one of which was lying on the floor, which must've been Naruto.  
Sakura nodded, readied her kunai and after counting to five, broke down the door with a chakra-pumped fist. The door blasted itself inwards. The two kunoichi raced in, taking up defensive positions and identifying the kidnapper.

"So, you've finally made it."

A girl with long, black hair lined with purple shadows was looking at the two girls. She had big, brown eyes and wore a long, black dress with a white, armless shirt covering her torso. She smiled at the two girls.

"My name is Kanako Urashima. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Hinata gasped. "You're Keitaro's sister?"

"Adopted sister, actually." She narrowed her eyes at the ninja. "Although it doesn't matter anyway. I see him not as my brother anyway, he means much more to me than that." Her smile returned. "So, what can I do for you two?"

Hinata was about to open her mouth and ask politely, but Sakura's angry voice stomped in at the last second.

"We want our friend back, who you stole from us. And we want him back exactly as he was before you took him away." To Sakura's surprise, Kanako kept smiling and nodded.

"Sure, you can have him back." She walked over to the unconscious form of Naruto. Kneeling down beside him, she touched him on the shoulder. "Naruto, its time to wake up."

A groan came from the blond ninja. His shoulders shuddered, and he slowly got himself on his elbows and knees, his head in his hands. As slow as he could, he moved into an upright position, sitting on his legs, lifting his head to face the ceiling, his eyes still tight shut.  
Opening his eyes slowly, he turned his head slowly to face Sakura and Hinata. Whilst he stared at them, Sakura noticed his eyes were blank and expressionless. He stood up slowly, still staring at the two girls.

"Sakura... Hinata..." His voice was emotionless. Like he was still sleeping or something.

Hinata quickly stood next to Sakura. "He's in a genjutsu." She whispered quietly. "We need to get our hands on him and release him from it."

"You know how strong he is, right? Getting our hands on him is not going to be easy." Sakura was worried. Under an enemies control, Naruto was a powerful opponent. He might be too much to handle for the two of them.

"It's okay. I think I know how we can get him." Hinata settled into her Gentle Fist stance. But as soon as Sakura blinked, Hinata was suddenly flying. She screamed out in pain as she hit the wall behind her, a trickle of blood running from the corner of her mouth emphasizing the power of the attack.

Turning to face Naruto, she gasped in surprise as she saw him right in front of her, halfway through a roundhouse kick. His foot connected with her side, sending her flying next to Hinata. Now she could taste blood too.

"Naru...to... It's me..." She coughed, blood trickling from her mouth too. Standing up again, she got into a defensive position. Hinata was up behind her, settling into her Gentle Fist once more.

Looking around at the situation with her Byakugan, Hinata noticed two main things. Naruto's chakra was going mental, clearly because he was under the spell of the genjutsu. But it was a different sort of crazy, like it was trying to draw chakra from nothing. The second major thing was Shinobu. An evil chakra was running through her body, which was clearly why she was acting so strange, and explained her abilities as well. The only chance they had was to take out Shinobu, and hopefully would stop Naruto's chakra from going crazy.

"Sakura, we have to get Shinobu."

At her words, Sakura snapped round. "You want to kill her?" Shaking her head slowly, Hinata looked sure of herself.

"We only need to knock her unconscious. You go after her, whilst I distract Naruto."

"But you're going to get hurt!" Sakura yelled at her. Naruto was a strong shinobi, way stronger than the two girls. And under the influence of an enemy, he was a powerful opponent, one of which they couldn't hope to hold off for very long.

"I don't care." Hinata said, determination etched on her face. "I'll protect him, and I'll never give up. Naruto taught me that."

Taken aback by her statement, Sakura realized Hinata was right. They wanted to help Naruto, regardless of what may happen. Keeping her eyes focused on Shinobu, Sakura nodded. "Alright, let's do it!"

In a heartbeat, Sakura had disappeared from the spot she had been standing on, using a body flicker jutsu to get as close to Shinobu as she could. Copying her movements, Shinobu also used a similar jutsu, until all that could be seen of the girls was two shadows moving faster than what could be tracked by the human eye.  
Hinata had a major problem with Naruto. Even with Byakugan, he was way too fast. Out of nowhere, his fist blasted its way into her stomach. Blood lurched up through her throat, flying out of her mouth and over his face. He didn't even seem to notice as he jumped backwards, his eyes locked in a daze.

Collapsing on the ground, Hinata used what little time she had to begin a jutsu. But she didn't have a chance to finish as she felt Naruto's foot catch her painfully in the side, blasting her into the closest wall, shattering it. Finding herself on the ground once again, she could barely move as she was in so much pain.  
Looking up, she could see Naruto walking towards her. Double vision kicked in, and she began seeing two of him. Shaking her head, she looked back up at him, blood trickling from her mouth, but her same look of determination still on her face.

"Naruto, it's me! Please, wake up!" She let some of the worry into her voice that she had been trying to hold back. A single tear escaped her eyes as she yelled at him. Attempting to stand up, she wobbled a little before regaining her balance.

"...please..." She said faintly. She got into her Gentle Fist stance, but this time, it was slightly more reluctantly. Her emotions were holding her back.

His step faltered. And then vanished. Once again, Hinata was thrown across the room, but this time she had managed to block some of the impact. She hit the wall again, but this time she was able to recover, and keep moving. They themselves became shadows, using the body flicker technique to dodge attacks from every direction.  
But eventually, Naruto managed to get a hit in, knocking her out of the rhythm. A sudden battle of speed turned into endurance, as Hinata and Naruto both parried, blocked and traded blows, weakening each other.

All throughout the fight, Hinata could feel more of her tears falling. She didn't want to be fighting him. She loved him, but she was trying to hurt him, and it was hurting her. His fist swiftly grazed past her face, drawing blood. Her hand left a sharp cut equal to her own on Naruto's cheek.

"Stop Naruto, please!" Her plea went unanswered as she felt her stomach being punched in, and then she was thrown to the ground. For a split second, the world went white, and there was a lot of pain. Crying out, she desperately opened her eyes, trying to see where Naruto was.  
What she saw almost broke her heart. He was walking towards her, a kunai in his right hand.  
He was going to kill her.

A sudden sense of peace captured her mind. She could feel the end, through all the pain and sadness. He was going to set her free.  
Looking up at him, she smiled, with her tears still flowing softly.

"I'm sorry, Naruto. I promised to get you back. But it looks like I've failed...  
I'm so sorry..."

"Hinata!" Sakura was holding off Shinobu as hard as she could, so all she could do was watch.

"...The only regret I've ever had, is that I could never make you see just how much I..." Hinata faltered for a moment.

"My only regret, is never being able to to tell you I love you. " She closed her eyes, feeling years of worry, stress, pain and sorrow wash off of her. She had finally said it, and with that she could...

_やくそく_

_"Someday, I will become Hokage. I will protect everyone, and more than anything, I will never give up! That's my Nindo, my ninja way!"_

"I will also make it my ninja way, to never give up, just like Naruto!"

_くおん  
_

Memories of the past flooded back to her, in that one instant. She was giving up, breaking her ninja way. And breaking the promise she had made to herself, so long ago.

And with it, she suddenly got up onto her feet, facing down the opponent who she had once thought she was going to die to. The one she loved.

"I love you Naruto, but you showed me that never giving up was what your ninja way was all about. And that's why I made it mine too. We share the same Nindo, and I am not going to let anything happen here!"

Using speed she never knew she had, using strength hidden away deep inside of her and using a courage that had erupted in from the fire in her heart, she rushed forward, blasting Naruto away with the Gentle Fist into the wall behind him.

Caught by surprise that her puppet had been hit so powerfully, Shinobu dropped her guard. Sakura was all too happy to send the girl flying into the floor, knocking her out cold.

There was dust everywhere. The impact of the attacks had turned the room into a major fog. As hard as she might, Sakura couldn't see a thing.

"Hinata, where are you?" She groped around in the fog, trying to find her teammate. She suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder.

"It's me, I'm here." Hinata's Byakugan was active, keeping an eye on Naruto. His chakra levels were beginning to return to normal, as were Shinobu's. Kanako had completely vanished. Sakura walked over to her, draping an arm around Hinata's shoulder.

"It's over. We got him back."

Hinata shook her head, a bitter look etched on her face. "It's not over." Silent, angry tears fell down her cheeks. "First, we've gotta stop Kanako. She'll just keep on maintaining this genjutsu, she's the reason we're all trapped in here now. And then..." She looked at Sakura. "What about us? We can't keep brawling over who wants Naruto more. We can't keep fighting, because it not only hurts us, it's hurting him as well..."

Sakura's arms slumped to her side. She knew what Hinata was saying made sense. They couldn't keep this up. And not only that, but Kyoko too. All three of them needed Naruto. All three of them were in love with him, and wanted him for their own. But it wasn't as simple as just making him yours, there were too many conflicts.

"Unless..." She sighed. "Unless he chooses one of us for himself, or..." She hesitated before carrying on. "We all agree to love him together. Because I get the feeling he loves us all, and also cannot choose between all of us."

Hinata's eyes widened as the idea formed in her mind. "But that would mean that...?"

Sakura nodded. "It would mean we would be committed to a polygamous relationship. And..." She maintained a serious expression, one that Hinata had never seen her use before. "...I would be willing to go through with it, and make it work, so long as you and Kyoko could also do the same."

Silence echoed between the two girls for a long time. Sakura was nervous, this was a massive decision, and even though it wasn't the best case scenario, it was something she could live with, so long as Naruto had a place in his heart for her.

"I think I..." Hinata stammered, it was hard to get the words out. "I think that I could go along with that. I love Naruto, more than anything. And if it meant I could still be with him in a unique way, I too would also..." She smiled at Sakura, her eyes still moist from the tears. "...would like to share him with you and Kyoko."

As soon as the words left the Hyuuga's mouth, Sakura pulled her into a strong embrace. "Thank you Hinata." She sobbed. The two girls embraced, sobbing into each others shoulders. The only thing they had left to worry about was whether Naruto would agree to something like this, and whether Kyoko would be able to go along with it.


	13. The Duel of the Demons

Hey Readers! Another long delay, I know, and I'm sorry about that. I'm currently in Japan right now and loving every second of it! But yeah, here's another chapter of Promise!  
There will probably be only one or two more chapters in this story, and I STILL haven't actually decided who Naruto is paired off to, so... Review and request a pairing! If you want. ;)

あけましておめでとう！！！

* * *

'Promise'

Chapter 13: The Duel of the Demons

"Hell hath no fury like a women scorned." Sasuke thought to himself. The full meaning of those words were clearly apparent with the raging demoness a few steps in front of him.

They continued walking until they came across a section of the Annex corridor with a hole in the ceiling.

"That looks like Sakura's handiwork." Sasuke said, noting that it appeared she'd used a lot more chakra then necessary. Kyoko was silent, choosing to jump through the hole. Following swiftly, Sasuke kept his eyes peeled for any more enemies. He'd gotten sick of all the surprises in this screwed up world.

A few minutes later, and they came across a room with the door kicked in. Sasuke could see Hinata bending over an unconscious Naruto, with Sakura tending to an injured Shinobu.

"What happened?" Sasuke bent down next to Hinata, looking over Naruto's battered body. He was alive, but covered in scratches, and a prominent bite wound on his neck. It looked as though he'd been ravaged by a vampire.

"Shinobu and Naruto. They were both controlled by the real demon controlling this Annex. Her name is Kanoko." Sakura explained quietly. "She's the one who stole control of the genjutsu, and the only way to stop this jutsu is to fight her."

"Where is she now?" Kyoko had been silent up until now. She was no longer in a rage, but she was clearly still angry. The sight of Naruto had calmed her down, even if it was just a little.

"The Core of the Annex." Hinata pointed at a door opposite the one they had entered through. It was where the irritating noise of grinding gears seemed to be coming from. "Her chakra signature is coming from there, and she's not even trying to hide it. She also seems to be surrounded by several other signatures."

"The other's from Hinata Inn?" Sasuke guessed. Hinata nodded.

"Probably. Who else could it possibly be?"

As they spoke, Shinobu began to regain consciousness. Her eyes slowly opened, to be greeted with a smiling Sakura.

"How are you feeling, Shinobu?"

The girl shook her head, wincing. "Everything...hurts..."

Sakura's smile faded slightly. Shinobu had taken a serious beating whilst they had been fighting. And the demon presence inside of her had vanished, so the benefits were also gone. She now had to heal with Sakura's help and her body's own capabilities.

"We'll look after you, that's a promise."

As Sakura spoke, Hinata was holding onto Naruto's hand, praying he'd be awake soon. It was partly her fault he was in his condition, but she knew him to be strong, that a weak girl's attacks like hers wouldn't keep him down for long.

"I think it's time we went in there and punched Kanoko into the ground." Kyoko growled. Her patience had finally run out, and she was itching to destroy the one who had taken her mess and made it ten times worse.

"What about Naruto and Shinobu? We can't just leave them." Sakura knew that they both needed medical attention. Shinobu especially, as she was only human.

"Then you stay and watch over them. We need to end this, now." And with that, Kyoko walked through the door towards the core. Looking after her, Sasuke nodded.

"This world won't last much longer. Let's hope we can save what we can, and get home." He followed Kyoko, his hand on the hilt of his sword. Turning to face Sakura, Hinata nodded.

"I'll go too. I want to help them, and save Naruto. Please, watch over them." Hinata left the room, a solid look of determination on her face. An eerie silence echoed in their wake. Just the sounds of Shinobu's gentle moans of pain, and Naruto's breathing.

Sakura concentrated on healing Shinobu with her medical jutsu's. She suspected it was internal bleeding and cracked ribs, amongst other minor injuries. Within five minutes, Shinobu's face returned to it's natural colour. Her healing was complete.

Naruto was a different story. She had no idea how to heal the teeth marks in his neck. Every jutsu she tried had no effect. It was frustrating her, close to the point she was ready to break out it tears again.

"Naruto...please...wake up!"

おねがい

"So you finally came." Kanoko smiled at them. As predicted, she was surrounded by the occupants of the Hinata Inn, minus Shinobu, all of which with the same demonic grin and glowing red eyes Shinobu had.

"Let the others go, they have nothing to do with this!" Kyoko growled. Kanoko laughed softly, her eyes slowly beginning to turn a glowing red.

"We are all the same. Caught up in a world which defies normality. But the thing is, we were created along with this world." Indicating the other demons around her, Kanoko looked at Kyoko directly.

"It's because of you this world was created. And it's because of you the occupants who live in this world are slowly losing their humanity. You have lost control of the world you set out to create, and because of that, the world is falling to ruin, held together only by the Core of this Annex."

"What the hell do you mean?"

"We control the Core. It's the only way we survive. If the Core is destroyed, this world fades away, and we all die." Kanoko's expression was serious. "So you can imagine that we don't exactly want the Core to be messed with in any way."

"That's not true." Kyoko sounded uncharacteristically calm. "You won't die."

Kanoko smirked. "And how would you know? You lost control of this world ages ago. Things aren't the same as when you created this world."

"You still won't die, whether or not I have control of this world. You won't die because you're a part of me, and you all exist within me." Kyoko was fiercely determined to get the point across, hoping that she wouldn't have to fight in the end.

"When this world fades away, you will still live. I didn't just 'dream' you into existence. I breathed life into you. When we return to Konoha, we will all return together."

Kanoko began to laugh. A hysterical laugh that showed she clearly didn't believe a word that Kyoko was saying. Which was fair enough to her, as Sasuke and Hinata were also having a hard time believing it. To breathe life into imagination would require godlike powers, unlike anything they had ever seen before.

"That's ridiculous. Breathing life into the imagination? You're a bijuu, not a god! You do not have the power to create life, only to take it away."

"I swear it. I have that power." Sasuke and Hinata had never seen Kyoko as she was now. Calm, determined, and not angry in the slightest. Almost as though she wanted to help.

"Lies! I do not believe you." Turning to face her companion demons, Kanoko screamed at them. "Get them!"

A line of red eyes where Keitaro and the other Hinata Inn residents suddenly vanished. Shadows jumped, darted and weaved at insane speeds towards Kyoko, Sasuke and Hinata. Sasuke activated his Mangekyo Sharingan seconds before he was almost decapitated by Kitsune and Mutsumi. They were holding kitchen knives, and were using pots and pans as shields, parrying and attacking with co-ordinated ease against Sasuke and his sword.

Hinata had to use an 8-trigrams, 64-palms guard just to fend off Keitaro, Naru and Kaolla at the same time. Bouncing away from the dome of silver-blue chakra, the demons raced back in, apparently uninjured from the attack.

Kyoko was dealing with Sarah and Haruka, both seemingly having swallowed a gallon of jet fuel each, as they were simply not still long enough for the human eye to register. It was a hard job keeping track of them with her demon senses. All of the Hinata residents were armed with various household items, like kitchen knives, hammers and screwdrivers to match against the shinobi's kunai. Which surprisingly seemed a decent enough match.

水

The amount of noise coming from the fighting room was unbelievable. It was like hearing a line of aircraft engines explode one after another, constantly. Sakura was amazed the building was still standing at all. It sounded like all hell had been let loose.

One of the explosions rocked the room she was in. Shinobu, who was now wide awake, was cowering behind her, all but hysterical.

"Sa...kura..."

Looking down at Naruto, Sakura saw one of his blue eyes slightly open. A small grin was planted on his pain-contorted face. Her mind shocked beyond belief, she instantly bent over and hugged him.

"Naruto!"

Returning the embrace, Naruto tried to sit up. Groaning in pain, his eyes flew open when another explosion practically threw him sideways.

"What the heck was that?" Purple energy was flowing around the building, systematically tearing off parts of the walls and floors. The three of them looked around. The entrance to the room was now blocked, with a huge amount of debris from an upper floor totally decimating it. The only way out of the room was towards the Core room.

"Let's go!" Naruto stood straight up, placed Shinobu on his shoulders, and ran for the exit as fast as he could, with Sakura inches behind him.

魔王

Kaolla, Sarah and Haruka were unconscious by some extraordinary miracle. Sasuke was bleeding from a deep cheek wound, three stab wounds on his arms and left leg and had a nasty gash on his forehead. Hinata's velvet jacket was a torn mess, with her shirt and fishnet-clad chest peeking through the tears, of which almost all of it was splattered in blood from numerous cuts over her arms and chest, as well as two cuts going across her face. Kyoko wasn't much better off, but her wounds were constantly healing on the go. Her clothing was now missing an arm, and was also a torn mess.

Standing across from them, Keitaro, Naru, Kitsune, Motoko and Mutsumi were grinning demonically at them. Kanoko was smirking, well aware the numbers were in her favour. Her side looked just as beat up at the Konoha shinobi, although they weren't giving any signs of pain. The shinobi on the other hand were on the verge of collapse.

"Well, now. Do you want a quick and painless death, or a long, drawn-out and painful one?" Kanoko smiled. Sasuke slowly looked up into her face and grinned in a way he imagined Naruto would.

"Go to hell, bitch."

Hinata and Kyoko quietly chuckled, wincing in pain. He had voiced the exact same words they were all thinking. They weren't dead yet.

"I didn't want to use this power. But it looks like I'm going to die if I don't." Sasuke looked directly at Kanoko, his Sharingan slowly spinning. "I've been using this Sharingan defensively, which is rare in my style of fighting. However..." The spinning got faster and faster. "Let's see what happens when I try going on the offensive." Closing one eye, Sasuke growled. "Tsukuyomi."

Instantly, Kanoko became deathly still, her eyes unfocused. The demon companions around her started to look confused, their red eyes glaring at one another.

"The Sharingan user... get him..." They all said simultaneously, in a strange, unearthly echoing voice. Speeding towards Sasuke, Kyoko and Hinata stepped into his defence, well aware that Sasuke was vulnerable using Tsukuyomi. Hinata unleashed another 8-trigrams, 64-palms guard, whilst Kyoko rushed in headfirst, punching and kicking everything within a few metres radius.

The five possessed Hinata residents jumped simultaneously, diving straight for Sasuke, just out of Hinata and Kyoko's reach. The events afterwards seemed to move in slow motion for the two girls, as from nowhere, a Giant Rasengan pummelled all of the attacking demons out of the sky, sending them flying to the other side of the room.

"Naruto!" Hinata cried in relief as she ran towards the grinning shinobi. Sakura walked to his side, holding Shinobu's hand. They all turned to face Sasuke, who was still concentrated on Kanoko.

氷

Kanoko found herself locked in a wide room, with Sasuke glaring at her. The walls were running through various spectrums of black and red, and the floor was matted with blood. Walking towards her slowly, Sasuke began to talk.

"You are going to let us walk free."

Kanoko smiled her fake smile. "I don't think so. This is still my world you're in."

"You are wrong. Tsukuyomi is a whole different dimension altogether. Which also proves you can exist outside the world created by the Kyuubi."

"LIAR!" Kanoko screamed, losing her patience. "We will all die!"

As Sasuke walked towards her, apparitions of Keitaro and herself appeared. They were smiling at her, echoes of her childhood self, along with Keitaro when he was a child.

"Kanoko, let's go home." The childlike vision of Keitaro held his hand out to the real Kanoko. The vision Kanoko also did the same.

"No! Stop it! This isn't real!" Kanoko was freaking out looking at the two visions. Sasuke walked up behind the two visions, and knelt down beside them.

"This is the first time I've ever used Tsukuyomi to help someone. These visions I pulled from your memory. If you really were just some figment of somebody's imagination, then this should be impossible." Sasuke held onto the shoulders of the two visions gently, gripping solid cloth instead of his hand just falling through.

"These memories are real. That is why I can touch them." Sasuke gave a small smile to Kanoko. "Which means, you're as real as I am, Kanoko."

Kanoko was silent, but her expression was a storm of emotions. In the end, she couldn't hold it any longer. She broke down, sobbing in her arms. Sasuke and the two visions walked up to her, placing their arms around her. Kanoko could feel the warmth from the touch of all three of them.

"Never let anybody say memories aren't real. Memories are a big part of who were are, and if we focus on them hard enough, we can realise that they are as real as anything in this world." Sasuke said gently to Kanoko.

Turning round, Kanoko threw her arms around his neck, sobbing heavily into his shoulder. Slightly taken aback, Sasuke placed her arms around her, allowing the world behind him to fade away into the real world.

零

The Hinata Inn residents had changed back into humans. They were all unconscious, with their wounds slowly healing themselves with a strange, purple energy. The same purple energy that was still pulling apart the Annex slowly.

"We need to destroy the Core." Kanoko stood up, slowly walking towards a door on the other side of the room. The sound of crunching gears was immense, which indicated it was definitely where the Core was being kept.

"The only way we can break the Core, is to go against the spell of the Annex. Which means..." Kanoko looked at Naruto. "The girls all have to tell you something very important." She indicated Hinata, Sakura and Kyoko. All three of them instantly flushed red.

"What is it?" Naruto said as he pushed his way into the Core room. Gears were turning in an immense contraption that seemed to be linked to the clock at the top of the room. The purple energy was being generated here.

Turning around to face the girls again, Naruto repeated himself. "So, what is it?"

The girls all looked at each other.

"Well...?" Hinata smiled at the other two, who both smiled back. "On the count of three?"

The other girls nodded. "One..."

"Two..."


	14. Sayonara

'Promise'

Chapter 14: Sayonara

"Three!"

The three girls slowly surrounded him, one for each point of a triangle. Hinata was in front of him, with Sakura and Kyoko just behind him on his left and right. Looking around at them, Naruto laughed nervously.

"What's going on?"

The room was silent for a moment. Sasuke and Kanoko were smiling, as sparks of purple energy flew all around them, like a procession of fireflies. An explosion echoed from the other end of the building, slightly rocking the Core room. The gears were beginning to jam as they strained to keep the spell active.

"The three of us have decided. The choice is up to you." Sakura said quietly.

"All of us together, we all love you Naruto. Deeply." Kyoko had a hard time making the words come out, her face was deeply flushed.

"And that's why we decided, if we all love you, and we can't bear the thought of not being with you, then all three of us can share you." Fidgeting with her fingers, Hinata looked at Naruto, her nerves overloaded with the fear of rejection.

"So, like I said, the choice is yours." Sakura gestured to the three girls. "You can choose one. You can choose all three. Or you can choose none."

"But after all the effort we've put into rescuing you, the latter option may not be a good idea." Kyoko instantly replaced her timid look with her usual evil grin.

"That has got to be blackmail." Naruto couldn't help but chuckle. After a moment, his serious side kicked back in, aware that they wouldn't be going anywhere until he had made a choice.

But before he could even open his mouth, the building shook again, this time a lot more violently. One of the major gears keeping the spell active had completely shattered, with thousands of electrically charged particles flying everywhere.

"It's time!" Kanoko shouted. "This is when the spell ends! Naruto, if you gotta say something, say it now!"

Another gear exploded with the force of a half-ton weight of exploding tags. All of the occupants were thrown to various sides of the room, gasping for breath.

"Naruto! Please!"

But it was no use. Naruto was slumped, unconscious from where he had hit his head on the wall from the impact. The girls all rushed over to him, Sakura grabbing his shoulders, shaking him furiously.

"Goddammit Naruto! Wake up! We've been through too much hell already for you to be unconscious now!" Her face was in a violent rage, but her eyes were moistening. The answer she had waited for so long was finally here. She was not letting him get out of this.

There were four more gears left. The purple electricity was ripping holes in the room, although strangely it wasn't harming them at all. Hinata and Kyoko were holding on to Naruto's arm and hand, silently pleading for him to wake up.

"...is it... wrong to have all three of you?"

Everything went silent. The girls couldn't hear anything, except Naruto's words. The explosions in the background were now just a dim annoyance.

"I've always thought it was right to just choose one girl. I'm afraid of hurting the three of you if a polygamous relationship goes wrong."

"It's a decision we've all made together Naruto. Maybe someday, you'll have to choose again. But for now, the three of us want to be together with you." Kyoko said above the craziness happening all around them. Bright, orange lights reflected in Naruto's eyes as the room flashed in a spectacle of explosions.

Grabbing the three of them into a tight bear hug, Naruto slowly whispered to the three of them.

"I love you."

Suddenly, everything went silent. The explosions stopped. There was no more purple energy. There wasn't even a room any more, let alone the building in which it was housed. It was just Naruto, standing by himself, in an empty, black space.

Walking forward, he began to pick up sound of someone crying. Following the direction of the noise, he eventually came across a small girl, crouching on the balls of her feet, crying into her eyes.

He instantly recognised the form as a younger version of Naru. Crouching down next to her, he put an arm around her shoulders.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He tried to sound as comforting as possible, even though he knew that this wasn't a normal reality he was in. The child Naru wiped her eyes, and looked up at him with two big, brown eyes.

"I can't find Keitaro. I've looked everywhere. Where is he?"

Naruto looked around him, but there was no one else in his vicinity.

"I don't know. I can't see him anywhere. Do you want to look for him with me?" The child Naru smiled and nodded at him. Standing up, the pair of them began to walk aimlessly.

"Hey, mister..."

"It's Naruto."

"Naruto? That's sounds almost like my name." She giggled. "But anyway... Naruto? Are we dreaming?"

Taken aback, he looked at her in confusion. Were they still in the dream world?

"I don't know. I would've thought we'd have stopped dreaming now."

"A dream doesn't end until you wake up. And while you're here with me, you can't wake up. I am the last fragment left of the dream you were trapped in."

"So wait, does that mean I'm trapped here?" Naruto looked at the girl fearfully. He was going to be trapped within his own mind forever.

"Sort of. But..." Naru sat down, crossing her legs. Naruto did the same opposite her. It sounded like this child Naru actually had an intelligence far surpassing his own.

"I'm not going to keep you trapped here. I just need to ask you something, before we are both released back into the world you are from." She looked at him sadly.

"You have devoted yourself to the love of three girls. But that same love is someday going to be a weapon used against you. There may come a time where you have to choose between the three of them, or something tragic will happen."

"What!" He felt a chill shoot through his body. "What's going to happen to them?"

"I don't know..." Naru said, sounding even more sorrowful. "I just feel it, you know? As a dream, I can feel these things. But my real question is this. Will you be able to choose one of them in the end?"

"Maybe... Maybe in the end. Right now, I couldn't choose. Not until I've sorted my head out and answered some questions. But I think I could..." Naruto said wistfully. He wished he could give a more concise answer, but it was the best he could do for now.

Naru smiled. "I guess that's okay. You're a nice person, so I'm not worried for them." Standing up again, Naru pointed behind him. "I think I've found my Keitaro."

As Naruto tried turning around, his dream scape world suddenly glowed with a bright, white light. It was so bright he had to shut his eyes and cover them with his hand. He felt his body being drawn backwards, and then coming to a rest, with him laying horizontally on the floor. When he opened his eyes, he was in a hospital room. Hinata, Sakura, Sasuke and Tsunade were all staring at him with worry.

"Looks like I'm home."

さようなら

It had been a week since he had been discharged from hospital. They had searched everywhere, but none of them could find the dreams or Kyoko anywhere around Konoha. Each day they kept on looking, with each day bringing a stronger, heartbreaking realisation that they weren't going to appear.

After a long day of looking around the village and the surrounding areas, Naruto was heading home. The sky was now a jet-black, dotted with thousands of stars. He walked slowly, looking at the sky the whole way. He was trying to figure out which of them would be the stars of the dreams.

Unknown to him, somebody was watching him. A girl, wearing a fox-like grin. She turned around to the group behind her.

"Well, shall we jump him when he's asleep or shall we grab him now?" Kyoko watched as another girl stepped forward.

"I think we should jump him when he's asleep. I'd love to see how he would react." Kanoko looked in the direction of Naruto's house. "And I want to know where Sasuke sleeps as well, I feel like paying him a visit." She said coyly.

こんいちわ

Finally climbing into bed, he looked through his stash of manga. He suddenly realized that he should really give back Hinata's copy of Love Hina, but it didn't seem right at the moment. He'd give it back when they found the dreams and Kyoko.

Flicking through them, he picked one out that he'd been meaning to start for a while.

"Rosario to Vampire." He read the title out loud. "I wonder if this will be as good as the last one was."

* * *

Okay guys, I've decided. The next chapter is the final chapter for Promise.

But don't despair, for if you didn't already pick up the hint here, there will be a sequel story to Promise. The story of Naruto's relationship with the three girls will continue on into the next story, and will answer which of the girls he chooses, not forgetting he can also choose from the entirety of the Love Hina cast as well as the new cast coming in.

And again, R + R for happy authors :)


	15. The Second Story

'Promise'

Chapter 15: The Second Story

The day began as normal. The sun was shining through his curtain, illuminating the wreck he once called a room. Looking to his left, Naruto saw his arm being pinned down by a less-than-appropriately dressed Hinata, wearing a simple, yet totally see-through fishnet vest. He was too scared to look under the duvet, in fear of what he might find.

On his right arm, he found a familiar head of pink hair. Straining his neck, he confirmed that it was indeed Sakura snoring, or dare he say it, _**drooling**_ on his arm. Sighing, he looked down at his legs. Kyoko was curled up in a ball, using his crotch as a pillow. Uncomfortable was not doing the sensation justice. His daily morning wood was fighting a futile battle trying to awaken from it's slumber.

Raising his head as much as his predicament allowed, he noticed he was lacking a significant amount of floor space. The entire cast of Love Hina was unconscious on his floor. And Sasuke was there too, with his arm wrapped around a sleeping Kanoko, who wore a gentle smile of satisfaction on her face.

Leaning back down onto his pillow, he smiled as he remembered the events of last night.

Attempting to get to sleep after reading the first chapters of Rosario + Vampire, he had begun to dream about vampires, werewolves and more hot girls. He had then been shaken awake by everyone at once, with the first thing he noticed being that there was a lot of people in his room who looked a little over-excited.

They had a massive late-night party, wandering the streets of Konoha, half as a tour of the village for the Love Hina crew, half as a way of waking up the entire village unceremoniously. The Hokage wasn't pleased, threatening to publicly castrate him if the incident repeated itself. The party then moved back to Naruto's house, picking up as much alcohol as they could on the way.

As of right now, his room smelt like sake and beer as a result. Poor Shinobu was probably going to experience her first hangover. Not to mention his own brain felt like he was head-first in a swamp. Except, instead of the usual swamp smells, there was a lot more alcohol and female scents flowing through his mind.

Inching his way out of the bed, he finally managed to get out from underneath the girls, tucking them into the bed. Pulling on his jacket, he quietly walked outside. He needed a walk to clear his head, and was thinking about whether or not ramen for breakfast would be a good idea.

As he paced his way slowly towards the centre of the village, he noticed something glitter on the ground in the morning sun. Walking closer to it, he realised it looked extremely familiar. Too familiar.

Picking it up, his suspicions were confirmed. A silver Rosario was sparkling in his hand, and looked identical to the one he had seen in the story from the night before. Looking at it with a look of dread, he realised something bad was about to happen.

"Not again..."

Suddenly, the world around him changed. As soon as he blinked, his world had become a war-torn wreck of a village, surrounded by flames, which as impressively terrifying as it looked, only lead him to believe he was in another genjutsu. This was confirmed by the figure standing metres away from him.

She had beautiful, silvery hair and blood red eyes that shone bright against the backdrop of a crimson moon behind her. She wore a collar around her neck, complete with a sort of chain that looked as though it was missing something. He quickly realised that he was holding that something.

"Can I help you?" Naruto tried to sound as cheerful as possible, despite the situation. He enjoyed seeing his story characters come to life.

The girl he recognised as Moka Akashiya smiled.

"Yes, you can. My world is in dire need of a hero, and by chance, it seems I've managed to stumble upon one."

Laughing, Naruto shook his head. "I'm no hero. Just a host to a bad-tempered demon."

"I guess we'll find that out for ourselves." She replied. "But for now, come with me."

"Do I have a choice?"

Shaking her head, her smile vanished.

"Not really. It's either I bring you home and save our world, or go home empty-handed, and everyone dies."

A brilliant flash of white light erupted around him, and before he knew what was going on, everything suddenly went black.

零

The sun was still streaming through the curtain, getting stronger as the day fully awoke.

The first to awaken was Hinata, with a single eye slowly opening. As soon as she realised Naruto was gone, both of her eyes opened quickly. Sitting up, she looked around the room, but she could not find Naruto anywhere.

She turned to Sakura and tried to wake her.

"Sakura! Sakura, wake up!"

The ninja slowly woke up, but quickly became aware of Hinata's look of panic. She looked around quickly, the situation becoming clear in an instant.

"Where is he?"

Rousing the rest of the group, they all raced out of Naruto's apartment, desperately looking for him. With their hangovers totally forgotten, the group split themselves into two, with Sasuke and the Love Hina group searching the southern area of the village.

Hinata, Sakura and Kyoko raced to the north. They had been running for ten minutes, when Hinata suddenly called for them to stop. She had picked up a strange chakra in the area they were in.

"What's this?" Leaning to the ground, she picked up the source of the chakra. It was a silver Rosario, and it was emanating a chakra that Hinata had never seen before.

"I've never seen that before, what is it?" Sakura came closer to inspect it, when Kyoko suddenly yelled out.

"Don't go near it! Drop it Hinata!"

It was too late. The area around them had completely changed. Destroyed buildings, cracked streets and a crimson sky, complete with a red moon surrounded them, instead of the peaceful village on a perfectly sunny day that had been there not a minute before.

A few metres away, a girl with long, pink hair and green eyes stood. Her eyes were filled with worry, and she looked like she was trembling.

"Who are you? Where's Naruto?" Kyoko screamed at the girl, who seemed to flinch at her words. She looked at them all one by one, with a clear expression of fear etched onto her face.

"My name is Moka Akashiya. We needed Naruto to save our world. I'm so sorry..." Her voice faltered. Pointing at the Rosario, she began to speak again.

"If you want to come to our world, you will need that Rosario." She indicated the object that Hinata held in her hands. "With that, you can open a tunnel to our world."

"How do we open this tunnel?" Sakura looked at the somewhat simple-looking Rosario that didn't seem capable of much.

"Point it in front of you, and say 'Aperi Via'." Moka's body began to fade, along with the broken world around them. "Come quickly. Naruto... he needs you now."

And then she was gone. The village had returned to normal. The whole experience had been so surreal.

The three girls looked at each other, and then at the Rosario still in Hinata's hands. They didn't really have much other choice. Lifting the Rosario and pointing it towards the air in front of her, Hinata gently spoke the words.

"Aperi Via"

* * *

Well, this is the end for 'Promise'. It's been a long time coming, but the main plot is finally finished. I would like to thank all my reviewers so far for their continued support, and for all the helpful critique along the way.  
I am well aware that this story is far from perfection, as there's still a few loose ends and mistakes back there that I need to rectify, and reading back, I feel like rewriting several of those chapters to fit in with the consistency. So until then, I won't be marking this story as complete. However, there will not be anymore new chapters for Promise, just some minor revisions.

That being said, as you've probably figured out, this ending sets up the sequel story that I am beginning to write, title pending. It will include the same characters, including the Love Hina gang, but will include new characters from 'Rosario + Vampire'.

Hope to see you again soon, and thanks again!

David Shigure


End file.
